Maximals Reborn I: The Beginning
by Dracannia
Summary: The Autobots never knew the All Spark was on Earth, they didn't come. But when the All Spark senses the Decepticons nearby, it takes action and changes seven humans into mechanical Earth creatures.
1. The Maximals Before

Chapter I

For about two weeks, not one day had gone by where the rain did not appear. Three families were all together, camping out at Keystone Park, and the rain would not go. Brianna was sitting under a shade, watching the rain pass by and did not dare read her book for she was afraid of getting it wet again. Brittany, Cari, and Logan were laying on air mats in one of the tents, listening to the rain hammer against the roof. The boys; William, Andre, and Cody, sat in the RV, playing a Fast and Furious video game. The parents were either in the RV with the boys, or trapped in their cars because while they were grabbing something, the rain started to pour down.

Brianna sighed and slumped in her garden chair. Every once in a while, the rain would gather up above her and splash down next to her, almost getting to her book. When was this rain ever going to stop? She heard rustling over near the bushes beside her and saw her sister Brittany and one of her cousins, Cari, get under the same roof as her.

"You're still here?" Cari said.

"Amazingly enough, I don't want to get wet," Brianna replied. She stared back out to the rain. "You guys want to play something?"

"Like what?"

"We'll play the Book of Genesis. We'll start by building an ark." Brittany and Cari started to laugh. "The good news, we'll survive. The bad news, we'll be stuck in a smelly boat for forty days and nights."

Being the little children they were, Brittany and Cari kept laughing. A few minutes after they were done, the rain had stopped.

"Hey! It's over!" said Brittany. "We can go to the lake now!"

"Oh yeah?" Brianna interrupted. She pointed left into the sky. "Check out that cloud over there." Sure enough, there was another gray cloud. "That little baby's coming over here."

"Crap!" Brittany snarled. She had been waiting all school year to go swimming, and now she did not get the chance. She stomped her feet, walking away from the shade, and splashed them in some puddles along the way. Cari followed her, also pouting. Brianna sat there and finally opened her book. She was only able to read three words when her male cousins came out.

"About time!" Cody screamed. William ran to the lunch table, expecting to find a hot dog that was saved by the rain, and Andre splashed around in some puddles.

"Guys, seriously!" Brianna said. "Can't I have thirty minutes in peace?"

"Be quiet, Brianna!" her mom said, getting out from her car. "We're camping, here. Have some fun."

"I'm trying to catch up on this! Sarah said that when I finish it, she'll come to my birthday in a couple of months. And you _know _I want some more people than I had last year. Remember how many came? One! All because somebody's got something to do on July 15th! I guess Mary's my true friend if she's the one that showed up!"

"Stop complaining, kid," her Aunt Jami said, stepping out with some dry food. "We've all had bad days. Just get over here and eat something."

Brianna groaned quietly and closed her book, put it in the seat, and walked over to the smell of fried fish, hamburgers, and salads for the adults who felt they were too fat.

"When can we go hiking?" Logan asked, running up to the table and claiming a seat.

"We just hiked three miles, following those crazy people in the Narnian and Middle Earth and World of Warcraft and Star Wars clothes!" Brianna's mom, Pam shouted.

"But we got to see 'em fight! That was so cool!" Cody said, imitating a sword in his hand.

"It was even cooler that I got to fight!" William joined in.

"But I had to pay five bucks for you to borrow that piece of Styrofoam and duct tape for it," Jami complained. "They should've told me that before you ran out there with the Pie-ans or whatever."

"It's _Pyrians_, Mom," Cody corrected her. Jami shot a hand up and continued setting the table.

"You're lucky that you got to fight," Brianna said. "If I knew that there was a battle, I would've made some Wolverine claws!" She imitated Wolverine, slashing at victims. "That would've been awesome!"

"I would've been like the Thing!" Andre said. He roared out as loud as he could, right before Jami told him to shut up.

"What would be even better was that if we were all real superheroes," Cari said.

"Yeah!" Brittany agreed. "I would have fire powers! Whoosh!"

"I'd be flying!" Andre said.

"I would want to be like Aquaman and swim and talk to the sea animals!" William shouted.

"I wanna be a monkey!" Logan said her usual four-year old self.

"I want to be a panther!" Cari said.

"I'll be the wolf!" Cody claimed, raising a hand up. "What about you, Brianna?"

"No, it's stupid," Brianna backed down.

"Come on, tell!" Her little cousins and little sister begged for her to tell. Though puppy-eyes never worked on Brianna, she fell for the annoying pitch in their voices as they pleaded.

"All right already!" she caved. "A frost dragon. How does that sound?"

"Isn't a frost dragon just a regular dragon?" Brittany snapped.

"No, it's blue and white and blows ice instead of fire."

"Cool!" Cody said. "And I didn't mean a pun."

xXx

Author's Note: These characters are based off of actual people. The names are real, theie relationship with each other is real, and the sci-fi battle and never-ending rain was real, too. Leave a comment! They're not really considered reveiws, in my terms.

And just so everyone can get this straight (in order of oldest to youngest): Cody, Cari, and Logan are brother and sisters who belong to Jami. William and Andre belong to Monica, a parent who decided not to come. Brianna and Brittany are sisters who belong to Pam. Got it?


	2. Earth

Chapter II

The Autobots didn't know where they had sent it. All they knew was that it would take countless stellar cycles for them to find it. At least it drove the Decepticons away from Cybertron, right? That was the good part. The bad part was, due to the All Spark's high level of power, it would be easy to track with the right radar. Now it's four million years later, and the Decepticons still have not found it…yet.

"For Primus sake, Lugnut, it's not that hard to extract a space barnacle!" Starscream shouted at his oversized partner. Blitzwing, Lugnut and he were stuck outside on the side of the ship all day, scraping off the dangerous organics. Starscream grabbed the chisel from Lugnut. "You do it like _this_!" He took the edge of the instrument and placed it slightly under the barnacle. He used most of his strength to get it off, but it refused to move. Starscream placed the chisel at a different angle and tried again. "SLAG IT!" The chisel gave way and Starscream was sent backwards. Blitzwing, in his black, random, jack-o-lantern face, burst out laughing that irritating, high-pitching, maniacal laugh.

"Zird time's za charm!" Blitzwing teased. Starscream growled at the triple-changer. He was _this close _to beating the tar out of him. He turned his body back around and flew back towards the ship in that zero-gravity space. He aimed his guns at Blitzwing. The mech's head whooshed around in a circle and locked onto his hotheaded personality.

"Zou better be ready to fire!" he shouted through his German accent. Starscream, strangely enough, took a second thought at it. He decided not to kill him and went back to scraping off the barnacle. He was just about to grab another chisel when Megatron had called him in. Starscream grumbled. He couldn't wait until that mech would go offline. He's over five million years old and he's still ticking. Maybe everything would go quicker if he had found the perfect way to kill him; which he did not find yet.

"Yes, sir?" Starscream said annoyingly. He did not like addressing the Decepticon leader in any way, shape, or form.

"I have a question: are you _done _with the barnacles _yet_?"

"No, sir."

"And," the leader continued, "the ship has picked up a powerful frequency."

Starscream's optics brightened. "The All Spark?"

"Indeed. Black Arachnia has assured me of it." Megatron looked out of the window to see Blitzwing hitting Lugnut multiple times. The giant mech swung back, but the triple-changer dodged it. "Get those two malfunctions back in here."

Starscream nodded and went to call them back in. All the while he was thinking why Megatron didn't decide to leave them behind. That's what _he _would have done. He escorted the two back, Blitzwing asking a million questions, most of them not making any sense. Megatron explained to them once they were in front of him.

"But ve havunt picked up anyzing for four million stellar cycles," Blitzwing said, face changing to a blue, calm face with what looked like a monocle stuck to it. "Vy ave ve just now captured its signal?"

"Because it's close, you moron," Black Arachnia said in a tone Blitzwing didn't seem to like. His face nearly transformed to Hothead until Megatron spoke.

"We have its location," he said, voice booming across the large and almost empty room. The screen blipped a few times and an image of a brown, white, green, and blue planet opened up on the visual.

"Ugh…," Starscream groaned. "It's an _organic_ planet. Do we _have _to go?"

"You will do as I say, Starscream, and we will all land," Megatron instructed. "Set a course for this…_Earth_."

xXx

Author's Note: I tried my best at making Blitzwing's accent. I had to say his sentences over and over with an accent myself to get it right! The OC's are coming up next! Whoo hoo! Let me just thank my cousins and my little sister for letting me use them in my story. This story would suck if I didn't have more characters in it.


	3. The Power of the All Spark

Chapter III

"How long have we been hiking?" Cari complained.

"About ten minutes," Cody said, looking at his wrist-watch.

"Really?" Brianna said, staring at her cousin. "Feels longer than that." To her it felt like they've only been hiking for twice as long. It was weird how time went slower when you were reading or doing something quiet. But if it was something you enjoyed, time came by with a jet pack on and _really _flew by. For now, everyone had their different opinions of how the time was going for them.

"I want to go swimming already!" William whined. He wanted to go swimming so bad he could almost feel the water consuming his body. What he would give if he was a marine animal. As for Andre, he would, as he claimed before, sprout some wings and fly the rest of the way. But there was no chance he was going to have anyone with him when he takes off.

"I'm hungry!" Logan complained, riding piggy-back on her mom.

"We'll be done soon," Jami said. "Just a half of a mile more."

A few groans were spread out through the group of kids and the two adults stuck with them rolled their eyes. Why couldn't Monica, William and Andre's mom, come with them? And their husbands? The only man power they had at this point were those three little boys--and their whiny little mouths.

Two minutes later on the trail, Brittany stopped and looked to her left while the others kept going forward. Cari noticed that her favorite cousin had stopped and was standing still, staring at…something. She walked over and looked in the same direction. There was a dirt trail, leading off to who knows where.

"There's something there," Brittany whispered. Cody noticed Brittany stopped as well, an soon everyone was looking at the trail. Well, almost everyone.

"What are you kids staring at?" Jami said.

"It's a road," Logan said. The four-year old pointed in the direction everyone was looking at.

"I don't see anything," Pam said. Brianna looked at her mom.

"A dirt road, Mom," she said. "The trees are like walls, so it's like it could lead into a labyrinth. And you don't see that?"

Pam shrugged. "Sorry, I don't. Come on, we got to get going."

Nobody moved. William whispered something to Andre and he passed it around. The two moms were confused. Did it finally happen? Were their kids crazy now?

"One…Two…" Brianna counted down. Pam was the only one who figured out what they were doing.

"Don't you _dare_-"

"THREE!" all the children shouted together. Cari held on to Logan's hand and they all ran off into the road. But what Pam and Jami saw was the kids running straight to some trees and basically phased through them. Jami's jaw dropped.

"Do we report missing kids, or do we go about our business?" Pam said in a joking manner. She always had a sick sense of humor crawling around in her body somewhere.

*

They ran for about three minutes until Brianna and Cody couldn't take any more. They were sprinters, not marathoners. They could run fast, but not far. For half a minute, Brittany kept teasing them about their speed. Brianna reminded her sister that she should not even be saying anything, considering all the times she's beaten her in a footrace.

"What's that?" Logan said, pointing down the road where everyone could clearly see it was a dead end.

"It's done," Brianna said. "That's as far as it goes."

"No wait," William said. "I see it too." He walked to the trees and bent down. He clawed through some dirt until the group of kids behind him saw the front of his body glowing, due to something on the ground.

"Come look at this!" he said. Andre was brave enough to walk over and look. His eyes glowed in wonder and he helped his older brother tear away whatever dirt was keeping the object there. Brianna walked over to see their progress.

"Guys, I don't think we should really do this," she said. "We don't know what that is and we need to get back."

"Come off it, Bri!" Andre said. "We're camping! It's supposed to be fun!"

Right when Brianna took a step closer, she tripped over a root and fell towards the glowing object and her hand rested on top of it. The thing glowed brighter and the two boys took steps back to the rest of the family.

"Brianna, let go!" Cody shouted.

"I can't! It's stuck!" Brianna shouted back. Sure enough, her hand refused to move. Beams of light shot out from the object and flew around the small area they were in. William and Cari stood up straight, afraid to move, while the others had their hands over their head, trying to keep the light from touching them. At some point, the beams stopped and each one was in front of at least one kid. They started to take shape and formed into small, blue, glowing animals.

"What is this?" Brittany whispered.

Before anyone tried to answer her question, the lights quickly flew into the kids' bodies. Everyone of them fell down to the ground and passed out. Brianna, however, had her eyes wide open and glowing sky blue.

In her mind, everything was cold. She was standing there in a dark void, nothing around, cold as the Arctic, and for some reason, she didn't have any clothes on. She curled up into a ball, thinking that would make her better. But she got used to the cold and started becoming her warmth instead. Ahead of her, a white shape lumbered towards her, towering over her. Once it was in front of her, it reared up on his hind legs, outspread its wings, and gave out a mighty roar.

*

It must have been a few hours. Yes, it was, the sky was already dark and stars littered the atmosphere. Andre was the first to wake. He got up slowly, feeling a little light-headed. Heck, his whole body was light. It was like a breeze could tip him over any second. He looked around to see his cousins and his brother still sleeping. What just happened. Last thing he remembered was himself trapped…somewhere, and something, like an eagle, flew straight at him! After that…nothing. Just what on God's green and blue Earth happened?

xXx

Author's Note: They say that kids are the ones that wish the loudest. But they also say "Careful what you wish for; you'll get it all". Well, we're about to get a truck load, I'll tell ya that!


	4. Naming

Chapter IV

"The All Spark's been activated!" Lugnut shouted. Everyone turned to look at him, thinking he was playing a joke. But, knowing Lugnut, he could never lie about something like this.

"But organics are stupid!" Starscream yelled. "How can they possibly activate Cybertronian technology?!"

"Silence, Starscream," Megatron ordered. "It doesn't matter how intelligent they are. All that matters is that they've learned how to activate it. All ahead full! We need to get the All Spark before it's too late!"

*

"WHAT THE FRICK HAPPENED TO US?!" Brittany screamed. She looked at herself; she was a mechanical, human-like tiger! As for everyone else, they were metal and human-like as well. And it seemed as though everyone got their wish, too. William was a blue and grey shark, Andre a gold and white eagle, Cody a blue wolf, Cari a red and black panther, Logan a brown and white monkey, and Brianna was a sky blue frost dragon.

"It was that freaky ball!" Andre squawked. "It had to be!"

"But how did it do that?" Cody growled.

"I'm a monkey!" Logan said playfully. She climbed up into a tree and started swinging around from branch to branch. "Look at me!"

"Logan, get down from there!" Cari screamed. Without thinking, she climbed into the tree too, like the panther she became. "Okay, this is weird." She held on to the branch tightly.

"How are we supposed to come home if we look like _this_?" William said, pointing to himself. "On the other hand, I could go for a quick swim first."

"No swimming!" Brianna snapped. "Let me just think about this for a second and--Logan, quit it!" The little brown and white robot monkey was throwing sticks at her. "Ugh…Okay, let's see. You know how sometimes in those superhero movies, the character usually just has to think about it?"

"Yeah…"Cody said in monotone.

"How's that gonna help us?" Andre shrugged.

"Just think about your human self. It might work." Brianna tried it first. She closed her eyes (if she could call them that) and concentrated. She opened her eyes again, returning the gazes she received. "Did it work?"

"Nope," all six of them said. Brianna sighed. She really didn't feel like going through this today.

"So…we're not human anymore?" William sighed.

"Sorry, bro," Andre replied. "We're stuck."

William's head went down. Before everyone went into depression with him, Cody perked up.

"How about we can be a super team!" he said. Every eye turned to him.

"What?" Cari snarled. "Are you insane?! We can't fight!"

"Come on, sis!" Cody smiled. "We don't really need to fight! We got teeth and claws for God's sake!"

"He's right," Brianna agreed. "All we need is individual names and a group name. Cody, since you thought of it, you can be the one to name yourself first."

"All right! I'm Nightfang!" he whooped.

"I'm going to be Goldwing," Andre said with pride.

"I call Darkjaw!" William said, raising his hand in the air.

"Biba!" Logan squealed.

"And my name's Tigress. Rrrowr!" Brittany added her own kitty growl into it.

"I'm not good with names," Cari said, still in the tree. Brianna studied her cousin's body for a bit and the name hit her.

"Panthora!" she exclaimed. "What do you think?"

Cari shrugged. "Eh, it's fine."

"And what about you…leader?" Andre said. Brianna didn't know what to say. She never really think that any of her cousins would choose her to be leader. She looked over at Brittany who, amazingly, agreed to nominate her. Brianna had never been a leader before. But she had to do it. Besides, who else had to keep these kids in shape? Just lay a few rules and discipline them enough to follow those rules.

"Icefire," she said in her best tone of voice.

*

Since they couldn't find a way to revert back to their old forms, or even go back to the camp site--the parents would definitely go nuts--they decided to stay on the restricted part of the lake. At least Darkjaw got to go swim. But when he came back up with some fish, they didn't taste the same.

"Maybe they're bad fish," said Tigress.

"Yeah, bad now that they've been in some else's _mouth_!" Panthora snapped, her head pointed to Darkjaw.

"Hey, I need these flippers on my hands to swim!" he debated. "How else to you expect me to get back here?"

"I _don't_."

"That's enough!" Icefire growled. "We came here camping in the first place to have some fun, not fight like a bunch of horny preps!" She took a bite out of the fish and spit it back out. "But this fish _does _taste pretty nasty."

"I told you it was him!" Panthora shrieked.

"You wanna go, kitty-cat?!" Darkjaw shouted. Panthora crouched to the ground to get ready to pounce on him.

"Bring it on, kelp sucker!" She lunged at the shark and they tackled each other. They rolled around on the ground and Goldwing kept shouting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Nightfang had enough of this and lunged in between the two, breaking them up.

"Listen to Icefire, 'kay?" he said to both of them. "She's the oldest one here and we gotta follow her rules! I know I make this sound like she's Mom, but Mom always knows what's better, right? So what's it gonna be? Fight each other, or fight together?"

Panthora was surprised at how her older brother could be. Taking his advice she held out a paw to Darkjaw. "Truce?" she said.

Darkjaw stared at the paw for a second and held out his own hand.

"Truce."

"Good," Nightfang mumbled and walked to Icefire.

"I'm impressed," she said. "For that, you're second-in-command."

"Of what?" he said, reminding her that they still needed a team name. Icefire shrugged and told him to give her some time to think about it. Biba swung over from a tree behind her and landed on her shoulder. She was so small now that she was a little monkey! It was too cute!

"Hi, Bi-na-na!" she said. That was how she used to call her, trying to say "Brianna". Icefire put a finger (or claw) over the monkey's mouth.

"It's Icefire," she corrected.

"Ith-fire," Biba mumbled. She turned back around and swung by the tail on a tree branch. The leader of the small band of mechanical animals smiled as she saw them all playing. Tigress and Panthora, being cats, didn't jump into the lake. Nightfang was dog-paddling in the middle of the lake. Darkjaw was just hunting for fun (he let the fish survive, though). And Goldwing was perched up in a tree. He was sitting on a branch, like an eagle. He spread his wings and cawed proudly. Icefire suddenly thought of the name.

"We are the Maximals."

xXx

Author's Note: Well, it's not as good as I thought it would be. And since I'm still making this, I thought it would be cool if you guys could send me a reveiw saying what you would like to happen in the story! I might approve, and I might not. Depends...No slash though, I can't write that stuff.


	5. Show Time

Chapter V

"This is too awesome!" Goldwing shouted, trying out his wings for the first time. Icefire was up there with him to make sure he didn't get hurt. Every now and then she would think he was doing something wrong, but she reminded herself that sometimes she was doing the exact same thing. She also kept looking down to see if there were any campers down there watching them. There was one time where Icefire saw a little girl point up at the sky to her and Goldwing, but she decided to ignore it and fly faster.

"Just make sure you don't bump into any trees," she reminded the eagle. Goldwing shrugged and did a loop-de-loop over her head. "Watch it, kid!"

"Come on, dragon girl, it's fun! Just try it!"

Icefire was afraid to do it. She had never flown before, not even in an airplane, and she thought that if she didn't try it, how could she even be a leader at all?

"Here goes everything," Icefire mumbled. "Goldwing, tell my sister I love her."

"You got it!" Goldwing laughed. Icefire flew faster to get a good speed. She angled her wings and in no time, she found herself upside-down in the air! All her "blood" was rushing towards her head and she felt a bit dizzy.

_Get up-right! _she thought to herself. She pushed her body down to get back into place. She looked ahead and found out that she was flying normally again.

"You just did a big one!" Goldwing squawked.

"I did a what?"

"A giant loop! You went, like, thirty feet up!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! How'd you do that?!"

"No idea…" Hoping there weren't any further questions, Icefire flew on ahead of Goldwing. It came to the point where they had to turn around and get back to the lake. When they did, they saw Nightfang curled up in a ball, laying on the dirt; Panthora giving herself a bath by licking herself; Tigress perched on a rock over the lake; and Darkjaw, still swimming around. Biba was back at home in the cave, taking a nap.

"Check it out!" said the shark, head sticking out of the water. He brought his arm up and showed a few shiny necklaces, chained by gems. "It's amazing how people loose things like these in here!" He dove back under to look for some more treasures.

"Well, someone's having fun," Panthora moaned. She coughed a bit and, disgustingly, she hacked up a ball made of small metal strings. "Aw, come on! Even _metal _cats get hairballs?!"

"Hey! I just figured out that I can molt, too!" Andre snapped. "So don't think you're the only one that has problems!"

"I bet ya that Nightfang sheds as well," Icefire mumbled. She walked in a circle for a bit and something alerted her. She reminded herself that now that her and her family were animals their senses have been heightened. She sniffed the air, smelling something familiar. At first she smelled the odor of steak on the grill. Probably some campers. She missed having to eat real food. But it changed quickly as she smelled something, in the same direction, and it wasn't pleasant but definitely familiar. Using her new hearing ability, she tuned in to it. She heard screaming, obviously screaming, and shouting something she really didn't want to hear right this second.

"FIRE!"

Panthora, Tigress and Goldwing stared over to her, Darkjaw head burst out of the water, and Nightfang woke up from his sleep.

"What did you just say?" the wolf yawned.

"There's a fire, just northwest of here." She turned around to face her teammates. "You guys ready?"

The animal children stood in front of her, in their best attack pose. "Bring it on!" they all said. Icefire smiled and transformed into a terrifying frost dragon, nearly scaring her family.

"Release the animals," she growled. She threw her head back roared as loud as she could.

*

"Did someone call the fire department?!" a lady, Samantha, screamed. "Has anyone seen my daughter?! Aires! Aires, where are you?!" She was pushed back away from the forest fire by her husband, Dylan.

"It's okay, sweetie, she'll make it…I hope," he whispered. Samantha kept screamed for her daughter, but no one came from the fire; everyone was too busy running away from it. "I knew we shouldn't have used the campfire as a grill."

Back in the middle of the fire, a girl, about twelve years old, was covering herself as if that would make her immune to the fire. She looked ahead through squinted eyes, trying to see where to go.

"Mom!" she cried. She coughed a couple of times and tried again. "Is anyone out there?! Hello! Ack!" Too much smoke was entering her body. Above her, she heard someone's voice.

"Nightfang, get the girl out of here!" it said. "Panthora, Goldwing, protect him from any falling trees! Darkjaw, get whatever fish you can out of the water and follow them. That girl's gonna wake up hungry. And, Tigress, I'm going to need your help when I'm done here. Nightfang, hurry! I gotta put it out! It's show time!"

Aries looked up above the trees and saw two figures flying above her. She heard a howl ahead of her and adjusted her head. In front of her was a giant blue wolf and a black and red panther. Behind her was a large tiger. They didn't seem real; they weren't even organic! They were metal!

"Come on, Fang!" said the panther. "We gotta go, _now_!"

"Hold on!" the wolf replied. He lunged forward and grabbed Aries by the hood of her coat. She was dangling by the wolf's mouth, almost choking by both the hold and the smoke. "All right, let's go! Icefire, do it!" The wolf ran off with the panther following behind and one of the flying animals above. Once they were in a clearing that the fire didn't reach yet, she looked behind and saw a dragon in the sky! From its mouth came a beam of ice, covering the fire. She also saw the tiger jump onto its back when it was done and it slowly breathed fire to get the forest back into shape. Before she could see anything else, Aries fainted.

"Oh, great, she passed out…"

xXx

Author's Note: Yeah, I was headed for some type of way that normally the Autobots could meet a human. I thought that'd be kind of neat! Leave a comment! (They're not considered reviews, really)


	6. Aries

Chapter VI

Aries wouldn't wake up, she was just too tired and her respiratory system was trying to catch up with its normal state. Instead, she listened to what was around her. At first, she thought she might have been dreaming.

"These fish are gonna rot soon," said a voice. "Is she going to wake up soon?"

"Shush!" another hissed. "We don't want to wake her up!"

"From what I'm sensing, she's already up," a different voice replied.

"So, what, you're psychic?" the first hissed.

"Yeah, I found out a few hours ago that it was my power. So there! What are you gonna do about it, fat fin?"

"Anything I want, panther poop!"

"You guys are such babies!" the second one screamed, echoing across the…cave? "Oh, crap, that was loud. Echo…" Everything stayed quiet again for a minute until the thing spoke again. "What are you doing?!"

"What, I was just gonna poke her."

"She's not _dead_, you idiot! Look, her chest's moving; she's breathing!"

"Can I still poke her?"

"Absolutely not!" Aries screamed. She sat up quickly, not knowing that she had even moved at all. Her head was still in a blur and soon went into a spiral as she saw giant, human-like, metallic animals standing above her. She couldn't find her breath and just sat there, staring at the beasts.

"Yeah, we were surprised too at first," said the wolf from before, bending down on one knee over her. Aries scooted away from it, scared out her own life.

"Who…Who…?" She still couldn't breathe.

"We're the Maximals," said the dragon. The other creatures turned to her.

"That's a cool name," said the eagle.

"Hush!" the dragon snarled.

"I'm Goldwing!" the eagle introduced. He pointed to each as he said their names. "The wolf is Nightfang, the shark is Darkjaw, over there on that rock is Tigress, the cute little monkey on the rock sleeping is Biba, the lazy panther licking herself is Panthora-"

"Hey, I'm a cat now! I have rights to lick!"

"And I'm Icefire," said the dragon, straightening her pose. "I'm the leader of the Maximals. Who are you?"

"I'm…I'm Aries," the girl stuttered.

"Nice name!" Tigress smiled. She turned to Icefire. "Isn't that a zodiac name?"

"Yeah," the dragon said. "Strangely, I thought that it meant as a symbol for air, but it actually means 'fire'." She smirked. "Ironic, isn't it?"

"Are you going to hurt me?" Aries twitched.

"Ha! If we were, you would've been dead already!" the shark howled.

"Darkjaw!" Icefire shouted. Darkjaw stepped back.

"Hey, I got you some fish!" he said. He gave her a large bass. "I like fishing but…we can't eat these. Do you like fish?"

"Um…yeah! Th-thanks," Aries nearly whispered, taking the fish. She looked at it. The fish kind of creeped her out with those large eyes. But what she hated the most was the _smell_! Lord, she felt like she was going to puke!

"Here, let me see that," said Tigress, taking the fish. She held in it front of her face, opened her mouth, and fire busted from her mouth and to the fish. She grabbed a small flat rock and put the fish on it. "There. Fried fish. _Bon appetite_."

Aries accepted the fish. It definitely _smelled _like fried fish. She blew on a piece to cool it down and ripped a piece of meat from it. Tasted like any good fried fish; like chicken.

"Tastes pretty good!" she said. Tigress sneered at Darkjaw.

"See?" she said in a preppy tone. "I told you I'm a good cook."

The shark growled and slumped down on top of a sharp rock. His face showed how much it hurt and jumped back off of it, running in circles screaming.

"OW! It's on me! Get it out! Get it _ooooouut_!" he shouted. Goldwing grabbed him by the back fin and held him there. He bent down and yanked out a sharp rock from his brother's rear end. "Ow…"

"Calf…"Goldwing mumbled.

"Am not!"

"Excuse me?" Aries interrupted. The shark and eagle looked at her, but she didn't like being stared at so quickly. "Uh…Is there any chance that I can go home?"

"By sea, land, or air?" Panthora joked. "If land, then I volunteer!" She raised her hand to claim the position.

"No, you're not quiet enough, Panthora," Icefire said. "Nightfang, no one can see you in the dark because of your color and it's dark out now. You'll take her. But please take her on your back. I don't want to choke her again."

"Yes, ma'am," Nightfang said.

"Don't call me that," said the dragon. "You make it sound like I'm your mom! I'd rather be called sir, or by my name."

"Which name?" Darkjaw said.

"Hush!"

"Wait. What does he mean by 'which name'?" Aries was confused as hell. Icefire glared at her.

"We can tell you later tomorrow. Goldwing will pick you up at midnight. We'll give you the details then, agreed?" Icefire said lowly.

"Sure…Okay…"Aries said, not entirely sure _what _to say. Nightfang transformed into a large wolf and Aries slowly climbed onto the back of his neck. She grabbed the edge of his ears for better security.

"Ow! Watch it!" he snarled.

"Oops. Sorry…"Aries moaned.

"It's all right. You're new. Just hang on and whatever happens, _don't let go_!" Without a warning, he ran ahead to the entrance of the cave at full speed. The wind slashed across Aries face and was looking to see if Nightfang was running into any trees. He stopped just outside the camping park and asked her where she lived. She said she lived in Jacksonville and the wolf exhaled sharply.

"Damn, I miss that place. Go, Jags!" Aries gave a small laugh and was quick to remember to hold on before Nightfang took off again. He was sprinting on the edge of the left side of the street, so the people in the cars passing could get a good glimpse of him. It came to one point where he ended up on the right side and a little boy was staring out his window at the Aries sitting on top of the wolf that was bigger than the SUV he was sitting in. Aries decided to be funny and waved at the boy.

"Mommy? Mommy! There's a giant wolf outside…and girl on it!" he said. "Mommy, look! Mom!

"Travis! Travis! Travis!" said the mom. "Isn't that irritating? I'm trying to drive here!"

Aries laughed and asked Nightfang to slow down. The wolf obeyed and ran behind the car and switched back over to the left side of the street again. On the way there, Aries had fallen asleep and Nightfang had to slow down so he wouldn't bump her too much. Thirty minutes later they got back to the biggest city in Florida. He nudged her and she slowly woke up and yawned.

"We're almost there," he said. "Just tell me the address. I'll be there in a flash." Aries whispered to it in his ear and smiled. "That's on Brianna's street!"

"Who?"

"Uh, never mind…" He ran off before Aries could say anything else. She hung on to his neck tightly and closed her eyes. She wanted this to end fast; the wind was killing her! In what seemed to be five minutes, Nightfang finally stopped running. He turned his head to look at the scared girl on his shoulders.

"We're here," he whispered. Aries opened her eyes and found that they were in the back yard of her house. In the shadows moving around in the lit rooms, her parents seemed to be crying and pacing around.

"I better get inside," she said, climbing off his shoulders.

"Make sure you go to the front. It's better that way."

Aries did as she was told and headed towards the front. Before she exited the back yard, she took a last look at Nightfang and waved. Nightfang, still in beast from, bowed his head to show that he was saying good bye. He turned and leaped over the fence and made his way back to Keystone.

xXx

Author's Note: Well, I thought it was leaning towards where it could start like any other TF series. And I thought Aries was a cool name to give my human character. ;3 Leave a comment, peeps and non-peeps!


	7. Big, Dark, Scary

Chapter VII

Icefire stood outside the cave entrance, staring at the stars, thinking of how her mom and dad must be feeling right now. They certainly couldn't forget their children, right? But it had been at least a full day and…Oh, right, the police made people wait twenty-four hours before they send a search party. Stupid human government.

Wait, did she just think that? Crap, the machinery mind was getting to her!

"Ith-fire!" the all to familiar voice sounded. Icefire turned a bit, but the monkey was already on her shoulder. "I tired…"

"I can tell."

"What-cha thinking 'bout?"

"About Mommy and Daddy."

Biba started to sniff. "I want Mommy…I wanna go home."

"So do I, Biba," Icefire sighed. She brought her claw over and wiped the tears from the monkey's eyes. "But, hey, we'll find a way. Okay?"

"O…kay…" Biba climbed down from Icefire's shoulder's and stopped at the rock below. She stared at the sky, too, and started humming. It wasn't a song kind of humming, just like a ninja meditation hum.

"Biba?"

"Hmmmmmm……"

"Biba, are you okay?"

The monkey didn't answer. Icefire bent down to look at her cousin. Her chest started glowing and something took shape in the middle of it. A symbol, a white symbol. It looked like a wolf's head. Biba got out of her trance, looked at the symbol, and smiled. She turned to the dragon. "You want one?"

"Huh?"

"Math-imal th-ymbol. Wannit?"

"Uh…sure! Go ahead."

Biba motioned for Icefire to turn around. The dragon obeyed and spun around. She felt the monkey place her paw on her back and hummed. She could tell her back was glowing, but it was in a bit of pain. It took only ten seconds for Biba to be done and the pain stopped and her back stopped glowing.

"Ah done!" she said. "You gotta blue one!"

Icefire turned dumbly; then thought that she couldn't see it from over there. She remembered to be polite and said thank you to her.

"Look what I can do!" the monkey screeched. She put her fists out straight in front of her and her eyes looked intense. She moved her right arm so it was beside her waist and lifted her foot. She brought it down hard and a large piece of the rock split from the bottom and hovered over where it was. Biba ran forward and kicked the rock so far that it went towards a tree and knocked the tree down! Icefire was unaware that her mouth was open and stared at the fallen tree.

"How…?"

"You gonna catch flies," Biba said, and ran up Icefire to close the leader's mouth. She climbed back down and skipped inside the cave singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Icefire's eyes followed the little brown monkey as she trotted inside. Once she was out of view, Goldwing walked out.

"What's with _her_?" he said.

"Biba's got earth powers," Icefire whispered.

"Seriously?!" the bird squawked. "That's not fair! Tigress has got a power, Panthora's got one, and even you have one! How come Darkjaw, Nightfang and I don't have one?"

Icefire glared at him. "Have you even _tried_?"

"Uh…" he said sheepishly. "No…not-not really…"

"Go ahead."

"Huh?"

"Show me something! Maybe you have a power somewhere inside that body."

"Okay…" Goldwing braced himself. He closed his eyes and thought deeply. Apparently he thought a little too deep and his mind formed crooked shapes. With each shape that came he could hear a loud cracking sound coming from it. He knew this shape. He opened his eyes and looked at his hands; they were emerging the same thing he had seen in his mind and were sparkling all over the place. Scared he was going to hurt something, he closed his palms and looked at Icefire. She started to clap.

"Lightning!" she said. "That's pretty sweet!"

"It's lightning?"

"Well, it could be electricity all together, but we'll find out later. Hey, bring Darkjaw out here. I wanna see if he has one."

"Oh, he's sleeping, so…I wouldn't wake up a shark while it's sleeping."

"Good point." She patted Goldwing on the back. "We'll train ourselves tomorrow. 'Night."

"'Night." Goldwing stretched, almost hitting Icefire with his wings, and dragged himself back over to into the cave. Icefire went back to as she was five minutes ago; staring at the bright stars. For a second she thought of how far the barrier of space was. Each time she got to the end, she kept thinking to herself "No! Keep going, it's still further out" and never seemed to get to the end. Then she got to thinking of where that diamond sphere came from. It was obviously alien, now that they were transformed by it. But where was it from exactly? Was it here on purpose or by accident?

She threw that thought away into the metaphorical "look at later" folder in her head when her mind came on to full alert like it had done when the fire started. But this was a little more serious than that. It wasn't really one of the five senses that got her mind going, it was just really her _mind_. She tipped -toed back inside, just feeling like a mom. She saw gray glowing eyes in the darkest part of the cave and almost panicked until she realized who it really was.

"Can't sleep?" Panthora whispered.

"You too, huh? Is your _panther senses _tingling?" Icefire teased.

"A bit," Panthora said as if the joke wasn't intended. "There's something coming. It's big, it's dark…and it's scary."

_That's her true power. _Icefire thought. _She's a psychic. I wonder if she can control minds or let her spirit into other bodies? Oh, well, we'll see._

"How powerful is it?" the dragon whispered.

"Just as powerful as us, but maybe stronger. I don't know, it's still too far off."

"We'll just have to deal with it. Now get some sleep. We're going to train ourselves tomorrow; we have to be ready."

Panthora nodded and went back to sleep. Icefire found herself a little area under Nightfang's rock that was like a shelf sticking out, and curled up to sleep. Tomorrow was going to kill her.

xXx

Author's Note: If there's anything wrong, tell me. I like being corrected in my stories. So, Ithought this chapter might've continued on, but I didn't want to bring the Decepticons in just yet; that would make the story a bit too short in my case. With the powers, it wasn't too hard to think about it. It just how all our minds work: creativity lives on! ;3 So, here are the powers: Icefire-ice, Tigress-fire, Biba (that's pronounced BEE-bah)-earth, Panthora-psychic, Goldwing-electricity, Nightfang-dreams and strength, Darkjaw-water and speed.

Any questions? Feel free to ask!


	8. Lineup

Chapter VIII

It all felt like a dream. Well, logically, anything that happened in the middle of the night had to feel like a dream. Was she seriously saved in a fire by six of seven mechanical animals? Did she return home on the back of a giant metal wolf? Only midnight tonight could tell her. The leader had said that the eagle would pick her up at that time, right? Unless was it was truly a dream.

Aries woke up by the sound of her alarm clock nearly blaring in her ear. She hit the snooze button and got up, knowing that it was going to ring again in a few minutes. She got her clothes on and walked out to get her breakfast. Her parents were staring at her as if she had come back from the dead.

"Are you all right now, sweetie?" Samantha said in the tone Aries was usually annoyed by. If her mom was acting like this, the fire had to be real. She smiled so she wouldn't seem to crazy.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm fine, really."

"Are you sure?" her mom continued. "You can skip school today if you'd like."

"On the other hand…" Aries joked.

"No! No," her dad butted in. "You're going to school. Samantha, if she's says she's fine, then she's _fine_."

"I just wanted to be sure," Samantha said nervously. "Dylan, I'm a mom; I have a right to worry."

"Well, you do it too much. You're going to stress yourself out and…Aries, what was that thing Ben Frank said about stress and sleep?"

"Benjamin Franklin said that if you don't get enough sleep, or if you stress out too much, you will shorten your life span. That's why he was one of those people who lived much longer than others back then. God, I love my history teacher!"

Dylan laughed. "You see? I ought to tell that to the school! A teacher who tells about themselves and makes the subject a bit more interesting by not reading _straight from the book _is bound to get kids' grades up!"

"That's nice…" Samantha said flatly. "Aries, do you want some toast? I made plenty."

"Sure, thanks," Aries accepted, sat down at the table, and waited for her toast to come.

"No, you're twelve years old, you can get it yourself."

"Crap…"Aries muttered. She scooted the chair back and stood up, walked to the kitchen, and grabbed her toast off the small plate on the stove. She took a bite out of it and found that her mom had already put butter on it.

"Does someone hear an alarm?" Dylan said, listening around. Aries dropped her toast and went back to her room. She turned off the alarm for good and walked back.

"My bad," she said, and went back to the kitchen to finish her toast.

At school, she looked around at other people at the waiting zone, before school had started. Sadly, she didn't have any friends at her school, even though she had been going for almost a year. She wanted to make a goal so that she would make at least one friends before the school year ended in two to three months. She wasn't known because she was usually a quiet kid around people she didn't get a chance to know yet. So the only communication she got from people were "Do you have a piece f paper I can borrow?" or "Do you have a pencil I can use?" or maybe even "What's the answer to this? Do you know?" It was depressing.

Aries sat down against the side of the school wall and sat in a crisscross. She reached into her backpack and took out a sci-fi book that she was dying to finish. She got through about three pages when her mind readjusted itself for a minute and turned to its hearing sense instead of the sight sense that she wanted. She heard someone talking about the fire that happened yesterday.

"I'm serious! The dude was crazy! He said he saw giant monsters go into the fire and disappear! He said there was also two flying animals above the fire. But I didn't hear anything else; I had to go to bed…"

"Well, I caught it. One flew away while the other had _breathed ice _over the fire! One of he monsters pounced on top of it and blew a bit of fire to melt off the ice. It was so cool! I can't believe you missed it!"

Aries tried to ignore the conversation, but couldn't. So she was right; everything that had happened _happened_! She wasn't dreaming it at all. The fire, the "animal rescue" (what a joke), and the ride home was real! No way. No fricking way!

"You lie! That just made that whole shit up!"

"But they got the whole thing on camera! I swear!"

"Yeah, just like they got _real _pictures of the Loch Ness Monster. It's crap! The camera was fuzzy and everything, 'member?"

"Screw you!"

Aries couldn't help but laugh. She found fights like this kind of funny. She wished she hadn't done it though when one of them walked up in front of her and their shadow had towered over her. She looked up from her book at the kid. It was Jericho, the toughest guy in school. He must've been the one saying the moment was shit.

"You laughin' at us?" he growled.

"N…No…s-sir," Aries stuttered. So much for intimidating. She stuck her nose back to her book and noticed Jericho's shadow walk away. God must've spared her. Thank you, Father.

*

Midnight came quicker then Aries had anticipated. Once she knew she was asleep, she heard a noise on top of her roof. She looked at the ceiling.

"Oh…come on," she moaned. "Santa, it's a little too early, don't you think?"

"Ho ho ho!" said a voice. Aries looked towards her open window and saw a mechanical gold and white eagle hanging upside down from the roof and waving at her. "Someone's asked to have you for Christmas, so I gotta stuff you in a bag. They've been good this year!"

"Okay, we're done with the Christmas now," Aries groaned, attempting to get out of her bed. She wobbled towards the window. When she got close enough to see Goldwing clearly, she saw some kind of liquid on him. "Were you…sweating?"

"Oh, yeah! We were training today," he explained. "I thought you might've been a little uncomfortable with it, so you have two choices of transportation: I could hold your shoulders by my claws, or you can fly on my back. Your choice."

"Well…" Aries couldn't really tell. If she was carried by his claws, that would probably rip her night shirt and she didn't want to tell her parents that she might've ripped herself. But going on the back of a sweaty eagle's back was just straight up nasty! Once she thought about it, she could always clean herself when she got home.

"The back," she said.

"Is that your final answer?" Goldwing smiled. Aries knew he was copying off of _Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?_ What a nerd.

"Yeah," she groaned. Goldwing stood upright and stepped back to transform. Aries limbed out of her window and almost landed into a mud puddle. She looked over at Goldwing and saw how marvelous and proud the human-animal-machine looked. He looked like a true bald eagle; the symbol of America--God bless it.

"Ready?" he said, bending his head for Aries to climb on. It took her a few times to figure out how to get on until she found a few good steps and slung her leg over like she was going to ride a horse.

"Let's get out of here!" she shouted. With a swoop of his wings, Goldwing lifted higher and higher into the sky. He lifted high enough so Aries could see the tip of the downtown buildings and stared at them. This was _so _much better than riding on land!

"Hang on, kid!" Goldwing squawked. He gave out an eagle's cry and rolled his wings in their sockets to fly forward and turned to the southwest towards Keystone. The wind, again, raced past her body and almost gave her a windburn. She saw all the cars, which looked like moving stars on earth, pass by and go in the same direction, the city of Jacksonville as they passed and a few small towns. When Goldwing was done with the speed, he slowed down a bit so that Aries could completely open her eyes and see how great it was to be up in the sky, not surrounded by the steel protection of an airplane.

"It's great, huh?" he said, breaking Aries concentration.

"Yeah…You do this every day?"

"Well, I just started yesterday."

"What, you just earned your wings or something?"

"Something like that…" the bird almost said in a whisper. Aries was puzzled.

"What do you mean?"

"We'll tell you once we get there, okay? First, Biba's dying to meet you. That little chimp has been running around and crying all day that she didn't get to meet you."

"How cute!"

"Yeah, but you haven't seen her when she was…never mind. I shouldn't even say it."

"Relative to what you're going to tell me when we get there?"

"Exactly."

Aries huffed. This was just like her sci-fi book. They wouldn't tell you anything until the right…wait. Did that mean that the animals were _alien_?! Holy crap!

The wind softly blew through her hair as she flew on Goldwing's back. It wasn't as watery as she thought it would be. It's as if he suddenly dried himself out. But, anyways, she liked how Goldwing was slower and less bumpier than Nightfang was with her. Someone needed to put a saddle on that pup!

"Wake up, we're here," Goldwing whispered. Aries didn't realize it but she had fallen asleep the rest of the way. Well, it was probably one o' clock by now; she had a reason.

"Aries!" a small voice sounded. A large monkey climbed on top of Goldwing and hugged Aries tightly. "You didn't say hi to me…"

"Sorry, uh…Biba," Aries stammered. "You were sleeping."

"You could-a woke me up!"

"Maybe next time I will, okay?"

"'Kay!" She turned to Goldwing. "She says you're late."

"Hey, I wanted to be soft with her, all right?" the eagle defended himself. "It's the middle of the night and she's tired; she deserves something."

Biba stuck out her glossa and jumped off his back, taking Aries with her. Goldwing transformed, stretched, and yawned. He was about to go to sleep when Nightfang howled to the moon.

"Tone it down!" Panthora shouted from the cave. "I'm trying to get a catnap here!"

Nightfang stopped howling to bark back at his sister. "Shut up, feline creep!" Aries heard the panther hiss back and sighed. Of course they were all family. Hold on, could robots have a family?

"Both of you, hush up!" Icefire roared as she walked out of the cave to meet Aries. She smiled once she saw her. "Sorry about that. They're brother and sister."

"I noticed," Aries noted. So they _could _have families.

"I need to tell you. We weren't…originally like this. I mean, we weren't metal animals at first."

"Then…what were you?"

"Human."

"Pssh! Yeah _right_!"

"I'm serious!" Icefire started explaining first at how they were all related to each other by blood. Aries was confused at how it was. It seemed like Icefire was a fast talker. Then the dragon told her about the camping trip and the diamond sphere transforming them into what they were before her.

"So…you guys became humans turned alien?" she asked when the story was finished.

"Yep!" Biba said happily.

"Can't you turn back?"

"We're still working on that," Panthora said flatly and laying across a high leveled rock.

"Don't you guys miss being human?"

"Kind of. It's only been two days full," said Nightfang.

"What were your names?"

Again, Goldwing did the introductions, but only to their human names this time. Aries was surprised when Icefire's and Tigress's name was familiar.

"You mean…_you're _Brianna and Brittany Summers?" she said, jaw dropped. "Your mom's worried sick about you two!"

"But we can't go back looking like _this_!" Tigress aid, pointing to herself. "We're freaks now!"

"Awesome freaks, I'll tell ya…" Panthora trailed off, her eyes wide and looking to the sky. "Something's coming."

Icefire heeded Panthora's warning and told everyone to hide. Goldwing flew off to the canopies, Nightfang grabbed Aries by the back of her night shirt and dragged her over behind a rock, Darkjaw dove into a lake, Icefire and Biba joined Goldwing into a different tree, and the two cats pounced back into the cave. All eyes glowing, waiting, watching for something to happen. There was a sonic boom up in the sky and they all looked up. There was something flying fast towards the cave entrance.

"What is that?" Aries whispered to Nightfang.

"No clue," he growled softly. He lowered himself to see if that would make him a little less noticeable. He put his paw over Aries to keep her safe. She leaned forward to try and see what was headed their way, but the wind from it was blowing so strong that she couldn't see it clearly. It landed on the small platform just outside the cave. It was huge! It looked like a purple and black human robot with purple wings. With the look of his face, he seemed interested in the landscape. He uttered something that she didn't catch. She looked up at Nightfang, his eyes wide.

"What? What is that thing?"

"I don't know, but I know what he said."

"You can understand him?"

"Apparently."

The alien robot spoke. "All vight! If zere's anyvon ere, come out now!"

There was rustling in the trees and Icefire flew in a few circles above the mech, its eyes following her. Her teammates were wondering what the hell she was doing. She landed just a few meters away from the intruder. He seemed to be studying her.

His face went into a whirlwind and locked onto a black, scary-looking face. "Ooh! Pretty!" he said, his voice high-pitched.

"I don't have time for games," Icefire growled. "Who are you and why are you here?"

His face switched around to a red Austrian kind of face. "Who are _you_?" he scowled. A deep growl was heard from the dragon and the mech seemed to take a few steps away.

"You're on _my _turf!" she said loudly. "Give me your name!"

"Hmph. Fine," the bot gave up. "My name is Blitzving. Now give me you name."

"It's Icefire," the dragon growled. Blitzwing put his hands on his hips and his face switched quickly to blue and his eyes eased a bit…or a lot.

"So tell me," he said, moving closer to Icefire, "vhat's a beautiful fem-bot like you doing on an organic planet?"

"Excuse me?"

"Zurely you must hate veing avound so many nasty humans!"

It took a minute for Icefire to figure out what this freak was saying. Then she realized that he wasn't from here at all. He was an alien…like her.

"Did you send that diamond?" she asked, not thinking. Blitzwing looked confused.

"Vhat diamond?"

"That giant sphere. It changed me. Did you leave it here?"

"Ze All Spark!" he shouted. He grabbed Icefire by the shoulders and she flinched at how cold his touch was. "Tell me vhere it iz!"

"Uh…Why do you want it?"

Blitzwing eased off a bit. "I have reasons." Not in any control, his face went back to Random. "Like helping Lord Megatron take over ze universe. WHA HA!"

Icefire knew all too well that the "All Spark" he was talking about could not be given to him by whatever means. She took a step and locked herself in a fighting stance, her fist ready to fling forward.

"You'll have to get through _us _first!" she shouted. Blitzwing stared at her.

"Us?"

Every single mechanical animal got out of their positions and stood with Icefire to back her up. Blitzwing was amazed at how many humans the All Spark had changed. What he was more curious about was what the form they took was exactly.

"_All _of us!" the wolf growled.

"Vell, zis is…interesting…" he said. His head switched to Hothead and his cannons from his shoulders faced towards them. "But you're sill jus sparklings!" He fired his cannons and lasers shot straight for Panthora and Goldwing. Panthora dodged by leaping to her left and Goldwing transformed and flew upwards. He kept in the air for a while to get a good aim and flew straight down to the intruder's head. His beak hit hard on Blitzwing's head and the mech fell over.

"I'm seeing spots…" he moaned.

"Cute," Aries said, coming from behind the rock. "He's quoting Cruella De Ville."

Nightfang growled. "Well, this is one dog he ain't getting!" He walked on fours over to the mech and bit him on the neck. Blitzwing shouted out in pain and passed out on the rock. "Just a little extra to remember us by. Let me see if this actually works." He closed his eyes and concentrated on Blitzwing's mind for a bit. When his eyes opened again, he checked to see his work. Blitzwing was flinching in his sleep.

"What did you just do?" Aries said.

"I just gave him a nightmare," Nightfang smiled. "Right now he's being tortured by swords and he's got no way to defend himself. It's my power; dream maker and catcher."

"That's cool!" Aries took another look at Blitzwing and saw him move his head around and his body twitch every now and again. "When will he wake up?"

"When the pain gets too much. Kind of like a real nightmare."

"Nn!" Blitzwing started to groan.

"Hmm. Maybe I should've had a more easy dream. Like in the forest at night, chased by a monster. That would've given us some time."

"Want me to dump him in the lake?" said Darkjaw. "I could bury him, head sticking out, in the middle of it. What do you think?"

"Perfect!" Icefire cheered. "Let's dump this circus freak."

xXx

Author's Note: We did it, we did it! Oh yeah, yeah, yeah! No eating here tonight, whoo! No eating here tonight...What? It's _Finding Nemo_.


	9. Jaws

Chapter IX

Aries was sent back home, on Goldwing, around five o' clock that morning. Icefire promised her that she wouldn't keep her up again and would pick her up Friday night. Since Aries didn't have to actually wake up until eight, Nightfang gave her a dream to let her catch on a little sleep. Her dream was a something she had wanted for a long time; seeing her grandfather again. He had died about five years ago, due to brain cancer. He was the comedian in the family for a while until, in time, Aries started picking up on it for a bit. Now that she didn't have any friends, she could get pretty boring. No socialism leads to just being plain weird.

This time, she woke up on her own; no alarm clock. She had actually woken up two minutes before that happened. Because the blaring was worse enough in her sleep and didn't want to her it when she was awake, she dragged her arm over and tapped the off button on the digital clock. She flipped over in her bed so that her arms were spread out and she was staring at the ceiling. Through her time of being the one with no friends also gave her some time to realize things. Right now she was remembering how she had figured out how long a week could really be. If you're ever waiting for something to happen, the week becomes longer and longer and feels like you've just waited a month for that day to come. So that's exactly what happened to Aries. Wednesday felt like _next week's _Wednesday and Thursday felt like next _month_. When it got to Friday in the morning, she sighed.

"T-G-I-F," she whispered to her room. She went through school faster that day, even crammed through her math test as if that was going to speed up the time. She found out that it didn't and looked through the test again to see how oblivious she might've been to some of the answers. She was okay with them and noticed something on her shirt. She grabbed it and held the strand to her face.

"It's stress," she said, staring at that piece of hair. "That's one day off for me."

Hallelujah! Friday afternoon! She called her mom up on her cell phone and said she was going to be picked up by a friend. She knew she shouldn't have done that when she heard her mom screaming through the phone.

"You have a friend! Oh, that's wonderful!" she sighed.

"Yeah, mom. So, uh, I'll be back tomorrow night. But it might be kind of late when I get home, okay? But I'll be fine," Aries explained.

"All right, dear," her mom agreed. "Just be careful, okay? And have fun!"

She hung up.

Aries blew out the breath that she was holding. At times she had thought that her insanity might've come from her mom. She walked down the streets away from the school and turned to the forest that was in the middle of the city. The dragon had told her to wait there until nightfall--and to watch out for hobos, muggers, and rapists. Yeah, thanks for _that_, Icefire. To see if time would go away, she laid on the grass and fell asleep.

A few hours later, she heard a familiar voice wake her up. "Aries. Wake up, Sleeping Beauty." Her eyes opened slowly and saw the face of giant bird _right _there in her face!

"Holy _shit_!" she screamed and rolled over away from the beak.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," Goldwing apologized. "You ready?"

"Kind of. My stomach hurts…"

"Did you bring a snack, like Darkjaw said?"

It was coming back to her; why did she just now have to remember that? Her stomach felt like it was eating itself and it almost got to the point where she would cry from the pain. As if reading her mind, Goldwing spoke.

"We could get you something when we get there." He looked at himself. "Sorry, I don't do drive-thru."

"It's okay," Aries laughed. "I don't feel like having a Mickey D's anyway." She climbed onto the eagle's back, trying to remember where she had taken her steps from last time.

"I promise to go slower; I don't want you throwing up on me." He flapped his wings to get airborne and Aries, having gone through this experience already, didn't have to hold on for dear life as they flew. She wanted to go to sleep on the way there, but her stomach was still too empty. So she brought up a conversation.

"Did you have any pets while you were human? Like dog or cat or something?"

Goldwing stared at her.

"I didn't mean it like that! I just…wanted to talk. You know, so it's not too quiet."

"Well, ironically, I had a bird; a parrot. He would not stop saying hello to everyone that passed by! It got really annoying, but…one day it got to where he had to go."

"Mom got a headache?"

"No. He…you know…passed."

"Oh. I'm-I'm sorry," Aries whispered.

"It's alright. We got a dog now, and I'm not talking about Nightfang."

"Of course you're not."

They continued their conversation until it ended up to where Goldwing got her talking about her school. She said how she somehow ended up as the oddball at school and had no friends _at all_.

"We're your friends, right?" Goldwing squawked.

"Well…Yeah, I guess you are."

"Guess?"

"Fine, you are!"

"Good. We need a reminder of what's it's like to be human."

Aries thought for a bit and came up with a question. "So what have you guys been doing all week?"

"We've actually been doing training and got a _lot _better, too! But the first thing we did was find that diamond that changed us; the one that Harvey _Tri_-Face was talking about, said it was called 'All Spark'. Darkjaw went down a few times underwater to check on the freak and asked him questions about it. At first the clown refused but we got him to talk. He said it was the most powerful Cybertronian artifact in the galaxy."

"What else did he say?"

"That some dude named Megatron was coming. I think Panthora's sensing it, too. She seems a little tense."

"Guess I better give her my Ben Franklin statistic," Aries muttered.

"The one about sleeping? Icefire's told me about that. Her history teacher's the bomb!"

"Wait, did she go to my school? Did she go to LaVilla?"

"The art school? Yep. She was in for violin. Her history teacher, Mr. Miller, was probably her favorite teacher."

Aries thought for a second of the class list that Mr. miller called out. She had not heard the name Brianna Summers because she heard on the news that they had now called off the search for all the Maximals. What must it be like to be a Maximal and not go back home because you're…different? Aries would never go through that to know.

"So what are you in for?"

"Huh?" Aries got out of her thinking and tuned her mind back to the conversation. "Oh, I'm in for creative writing."

"Really?" Goldwing said surprised. "I thought you were a dancer, or maybe even a visual artist."

"Nah. I don't do dance and I can't draw very well."

"Neither could Icefire. She just picked it all up as she went along. It started when she drew a still life picture in fourth grade and it was hung up somewhere downtown for young artists. In sixth grade she started reading anime and she learned how to draw them. Let me tell you, if you saw how she drew then and compared it to a picture she recently drew, there's a big leap in there!"

"Well, why didn't she go in for art?"

"Because they told her if she even wanted to take a class, she would have to change her entire arts area. She didn't want to change it because now she's been through seven years of violin and didn't want to quit."

"Did she get into D.A.? The high school?"

"Nope. But she's okay with it. She said 'That tells me violin wasn't my true love' and it 's true! She liked to draw more than she liked to practice."

"Oh."

"Well, we're here! Keystone Park!"

Aries mind had to catch up with this. Weren't they just seventy miles away? Now they were there! Wow; Goldwing is time so it just really flies. They landed on the platform outside the cave, no one out there to meet them.

"Where is everyone?" she said. Before Goldwing could say anything, she heard whooping and slashing going on further down the lake.

"Pool party!" Goldwing shouted. He took off into the air again and followed the sound. His voice soon became a playful growl. "And they didn't even tell me…" They landed at the point where the grass finally disappeared and became mud. Aries jumped off the eagle and took off her shirt.

"_What_ are _doing_?!"

"I knew you guys would be swimming, so I got dressed with my bathing suit under." She took off her pants too.

"Oh! For second I thought you were playing a stripper! Jeez, don't scare me like that!"

Aries gave a slight nudge into his shoulder and it seemed like she pressed the right button for him to transform. He ran off, leaving the twelve-year old behind and flew up over the lake. He stopped moving his wings as he got to the middle and dove straight down.

"COWABUNGAAAAAA!" he screamed. Aries laughed at the bird's silliness and looked around. Biba was splashing in the shallow part of the water, Nightfang was staring at the sky (probably tempted to howl at the moon), Darkjaw was swimming so fast in the water it looked like the fin on his back was a tiny little speedboat, Icefire was floating on top the water, relaxing herself, and Tigress was at the edge of the lake, getting only her feet wet. But where was Panthora? Last time Aries had checked there were seven Maximals. She walked up to Biba.

"Hey, where's Panthora?"

"She ithn't feeling good," Biba said, her face looking sad. "She's been having nightmares."

"Nightfang's fault?"

"No. Jus something about a dark man. She's been rolling around in her sleep and wakes up shouting. She says he won't go away."

"That's frightening…"Aries breathed. She's had nightmares before where she would wake up and feel cold, even under the covers. For a few seconds she would think about bunking with mom for the rest of the night to make the dream go away. But since she was so cold and the house was dark, it felt like the being from the dream would pop out in front of her and grab her.

"Hey, look!" Biba said, distracting her. She pointed to her chest to show a symbol. "Ith a Ma-thimal th-ymbol! I gave one to everybody! Want one?"

"Um, I don't think that could work on me," Aries said nervously.

"It doesn't hurt."

"Probably not you, but it could do a _lot _to me! So, sorry, but no thanks."

"Aww," Biba pouted. She slumped back into the water. "Then come out here and play! We could be mermaids!"

"And I can be the serpent that _eats _the mermaids!" Darkjaw teased. He gave a wicked smile to scare the young monkey. It didn't work.

"Well, I can use my supa powers to take you down!" she said with confidence. Darkjaw had seen Biba's progression in training and swam away thinking Biba was going to hurl a boulder at him. Aries chuckled and swam out to Biba.

"I probably don't swim as well as you do," she grinned.

"Is okay," Biba shrugged. "Hey! You can go swim with Darkjaw! He'll have you on his back and go swimming! It's fun; I've tried!"

"If you say so…Hey! Darkjaw!" Aries called. She saw the shark's head sticking out of the water.

"What?" he shouted back.

"Get over here!"

"No way! I don't want little miss Curious George killing me!"

"No, no! I want to go swimming with you!"

Darkjaw raised an eye. He ducked under the water so only his back fin was up. He swam so fast and straight at her that she nearly froze! As soon as he was in front of her, he brought his head and neck back up. "Really?" he said.

"Yeah! Turn around, let me get on."

Darkjaw spun around and nearly whacked Biba in the face with his fin. He gave a sarcastic apology and waited for Aries to get situated.

"Ready?"

"Maybe…"

"Well, hang on!" Aries took a deep breath of air and Darkjaw splashed back into the water. He swam low, almost to the ground, and Aries was scared at how dark the lake was. The only light was coming from Darkjaw's eyes, which weren't all that bright considering their original color was black. They were down there for a few minutes until Aries realized she couldn't breathe! She tapped Darkjaw with her feet several times to try and make him go up. It seemed like he was ignoring it and she tried harder. She felt a low growl coming from the shark and he swam upward. As soon as they hit the surface, Aries swam backwards and gasped for breath.

"Why'd you kick me?!" Darkjaw shouted. Aries held up a finger to catch some more air. The shark's eyes changed and realized why she did that. "Oh…Sorry, I-I didn't-"

"It's all right."

"No, it's not!" he debated. "I almost killed you!"

"Darkjaw, really, it's…" Aries trailed off like Panthora had done. Was it her, or did something just brush by her leg? It was hard like a shell and sent a freezing shiver up her spine.

"Can we get out of here?" she whimpered.

"Why, it's just- _Holy_ crap!" Darkjaw shivered. He grabbed Aries and placed her on his back. He decided to stay above the surface of the water and swam with whatever speed he had in him. To Aries' disadvantage, Darkjaw really was like a shark and his hide was slippery.

"Slow down!" she shouted. But her words were caught in the wind. She had to hold on to the fin tighter to get out of there. Daring herself, she looked behind and wished he hadn't. "Speed it up! Speed it up!" Aries changed her mind. Darkjaw listened and went ten miles faster. The edge of the lake was in view and she saw Tigress staring at the speeding shark.

"What in the world…?" she said. Darkjaw made it to the edge and Aries dropped herself off into the dirt. Anyone who saw came over and towered over her.

"Are you okay?" Nightfang asked.

"What happened?" Icefire said.

"There was…"Aries breathed, "an alligator…"

"And a big one too!" Darkjaw finished. Icefire sighed.

"And I thought the freak had escaped…" she said. The Maximals groaned and went back to what they were originally doing.

Back at the cave, Panthora was curled up in a ball, tempted to chew on her tail as she was feeling the cold air rush over her. The nightmares she had been getting were so _real_! They nearly paralyzed her into a freezing death! The man was like how Blitzwing, looked but tougher. There was a cannon strapped to his right shoulder and scared Panthora stiff. In her dreams, she had been alone, no one there to tell her it was going to be okay. The man walked up to her and behind him were three others.

"Who are you?" he said, voice so deep that it echoed across the area. He was intimidating at the fullest and Panthora could find the words in her head to pull through her mouth.

"Tell him your name," another voiced hissed. It was female and came from one of the figures behind the dark man. Again, Panthora was still.

"For Primus sake! Just tell him!" This one she could be sure if it was male or female. It sounded tough enough to be a guy, but it also sounded like a fat old lady that had been smoking for fifty years.

"In the name of the great and glorious Megatron, you will give us your name! And you shall tell our grand commander if you are an Autobot or Decepticon!" Okay, this one was just a suck up stuck inside a wrestler's body.

The black and red panther had forgotten her name, so she wasn't able to tell them. So she gave the name of the group like the largest one had asked.

"M…Maximal…"

xXx

Author's Note: If you didn't get this, the Mamimals are based off of real people. I'm Icefire, my sister's Tigress, my cousins (Aunt Jami's kids) are Cody [Nightfang], Cari [Panthora], Logan [Biba] and the other family (Aunt Monica's, though her actual name is Jami as well) is William [Darkjaw] and Andre [Goldwing]. So the details about Icefire were real then. [Yeah, I wanted to go for art, but the other reason I didn't was because I found out that the art teacher was really mean]

Who's getting freaked out like Panthora is? Raise your hands. *hand shoots up*


	10. War Begins

Chapter X

"What in Primus' name is a Maximal?" Starscream complained. "What is your name, girl?"

The mysterious, faded being was stiff. The Decepticons were trying to figure out who this was and why she was here, but she didn't give any information. She almost seemed like a ghost, really, like she wasn't even there.

"Do you think that Maximal _is _her name?" Lugnut suggested.

"I'm…a Maximal…" the creature answered for her.

"Well I wanna know what she _is_," Black Arachnia screeched. "She can't be all Cybertronian, just look at her! She's just as organic as I am!"

Megatron heeded her words and spoke to the girl. "What are you, my dear?" he said coldly. The thing flinched and stared at him with wide and frightened eyes. He was thinking _Perhaps that was a bit too much_. He tried again. "Will you please tell me your name?"

That seemed to work a bit better.

"P…Pan…thora…Panthora," she stammered. Megatron smiled, satisfied with his answer.

"Do you know where the All Spark is?"

Panthora's eyes became wider. Her head perked up and her oversized ears faced towards him.

She whispered, "Are _you _Megatron?"

The high Decepticon commander's face changed from pleased to surprised. How did she know his name? But before he could ask, the Maximal's head looked away and she disappeared.

"Well, wasn't _she_ a lot of help?" Starscream said sarcastically.

*

"Sis, are you okay?" Nightfang cried. "You were talking to yourself and you were shaking."

"I…I saw…_him_!" she said frailly.

"Who? Who did you see?"

"I saw…Megatron…He's coming, 'Fang…He's coming for it…for the All Spark…We gotta hide it!" She grabbed her brother by his shoulder and he shook it off. He was just as scared as his sister. Sure they improved in fighting, but there was no way they could be ready for this!

Nightfang put his hand on her head and she stopped gasping for air. "Let's give you a dream. Let's go back home to where Leah is; where she would come every day and visit you." He paused, editing the dream he was giving. "You see? There you guys are, playing in the pool. It's safe now."

Panthora sighed and a smile came across her face. Her eyes settled a bit and she fell asleep. Nightfang had a sad look on his face. For the first time in a long time, he was worried about his sister. She must've had the worst pain out of all the Maximals now that she was able to contact Megatron. He must've been pretty scary to be able to frighten her. What was he like, really?

He heard humming coming from outside and figured that it might've been Biba. But when he looked, it was Icefire, singing a song that was a little familiar to him. He didn't know where but all he knew was that he heard it before. He walked away from his sister when he was sure she was having a good dream and stood behind Icefire. The dragon stopped humming.

"Like my singing?" she joked without turning to look at him.

"Well, if you sang the words I might. What were you singing?"

"_The Call_."

"Oh." The title didn't sound familiar but the song sure did. He turned to see his sister still lying on the rock and a smile still visible on her face. "Panthora…had a dream."

"About the man?"

"Well, yes and no."

Icefire turned around and had a curious look on her. "What do you mean?"

"It was about the man, but he's not a man. It's…Megatron."

Icefire turned back around so her second-in-command wouldn't see how scared she actually was. "Is he coming?"

"She's says he's getting closer. Do you think we should warn the others?"

"No. Not yet. I don't want any form of panic in this team, understand?"

"Yes, sir."

Icefire turned back around and raised an optic. "_Excuse_ me?"

"You said you didn't like to be called ma'am. You'd rather be called Icefire or sir."

"I did, didn't I?" said Icefire, remembering a few days ago.

"Well, I better get some sleep," Nightfang yawned. "Lord knows what's gonna happen tomorrow. G'night."

"'Night, pup-dog," Icefire joked. She heard a slight laugh come from him as he walked off into the cave.

Megatron was coming? She trusted Panthora that she was telling the truth. Sure the panther liked to lie whenever she didn't get her way, but she would never lie about something as serious as this. How would she know if her team was ready for this? What would happen? What could she do if everything had failed? Now was the time she wished she wasn't the leader. But if that's what her own family had decided on, she'd have to deal with it. Like a real leader would.

*

Aries decided to sleep with Nightfang. She wanted to be with Panthora, to keep her company, but Icefire was afraid of the girl getting hurt by another psychic trip over to Megatron again.

When Panthora was awake, Icefire asked her about how her little chat had went on with the Decepticon leader. She said she only gave her name and the group name, nothing else. Not even where they were or even what they done to their other troop.

"So, he knows nothing?" the dragon asked.

"Until he picks up on Blitzwing's energy signal, we'll be fine. But he's still pretty close…Can we kill him?"

"Ex_cuse _me?"

"Kill him. You know, so they won't find him."

"Panthora, I've known you to be annoying and a bit egocentric but _homicidal_? Seriously!"

"Well, it was just a thought…"

"Think better next time," Icefire growled. "If we kill him that makes us horrible as our big bad Megatron!"

Panthora's shoulders dropped and she felt bad at what she said. Icefire saw the expression and realized that she was a bit too loud for her.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I just feel a bit stressed out right now."

"Benjamin Franklin!" Aries shouted from the cave.

"Enough already!" the dragon shouted back.

Aries obeyed and stayed quiet, but inside she was laughing at the angry leader. She was still scared when she heard that the Megatron Blitzwing was talking about was on his way here. She turned and looked at the sleeping Maximals and the only one that _wasn't _sleeping: Biba. She got up and walked over to the monkey. She was sitting, legs close to her chest and her arms securing them there, and sat down next to her.

"You feeling okay?" Aries asked her.

"It's dark in here," Biba whimpered. Aries could tell that Biba was listening to Icefire's colloquy as well.

"Do you want me to sleep with you tonight?"

Without any hesitation, Biba nodded her head and laid down. Aries laid down in front of her so that they were facing each other. She saw in the monkey's eyes how scared she really was. Someone like this shouldn't go into battle against that creepy machine that was on its way here. She would have to talk to Icefire about it. Biba was just a baby still; she can't fight! There was just no way! But, again, her perceptive mind went into effect and she thought of how strong Biba might actually be. She had the power over earth, for crying out loud! She was definitely hundreds and maybe even thousands of times stronger than a regular four-year old. But she still going to discuss this with Icefire. Letting her mind settle, she closed her eyes, felt Biba's hand hold hers, and went to sleep.

*

The next morning came quickly, as if they had only slept for about ten minutes but still got a full night's sleep. Icefire was slow at waking up. She stood there for a bit, trying to get her mind straight before she took a step, and walked outside to see if there was something to eat. They had found out a few days ago that the food they needed came from the All Spark, and all they had to do was extract a dark purple liquid from it and drink it up.

Aries followed the dragon as she was getting some for all the Maximals. She had walked down a hiking trail and suddenly turned right into some trees. At first it looked as if she had just walked right through them. Aries ran over to where she saw the Maximal leader disappear and was right; nothing but trees. She decided to wait out for her and sat across the trail, drawing stick figures in the dirt, and looked up as she saw the dragon just suddenly appear before her with seven cups of purple fluid.

"Did you just…follow me here?" she said.

"Yeah, I, uh, wanted to talk to you about Biba."

"Is she okay?"

"Well, actually, I wanted to say that I'm not sure if she should go out into battle and fight Megatron. I mean, she's just a little kid."

Icefire shot her a look. "I'm still a kid. Tigress is still a kid, Goldwing's a kid, we are all just children! But I will talk to Biba. She can fight but only if she wants to."

"Okay…"

"But thank you for being concerned about her. I really do appreciate it." Icefire smiled. "Do you want to ride back, or are you going to walk?"

"Maybe next time."

"Suit yourself," Icefire shrugged. She walked away, having Aries tag along next to her. Both were thinking about the dangers that the Maximals would have to face. They had never fought before (in combat) in their lives and now they're stuck in the middle of a war that was not meant to be theirs.

xXx

Author's Note: For the people/person that's reading this story, sorry that it took me a while. I was on vacation for three weeks, and **was able to finish this story**! Please tell me how you like the story as you read. You don't have to read to the end and say nothing. (hint hint)


	11. The Stevens Brothers

Chapter XI

Megatron was wondering why Blitzwing hadn't shown up yet; it had been several days with no report from the triple-changer. He was beginning to think that humans really _were _not what they seemed after all. They were probably torturing the tar out of the lunatic right now.

Even Starscream himself was impressed with the human race, and grateful. For so long he had been trying to ignore that annoying whelp and now he was gone. Finally gone! If he ever met one of the filthy little organics, he would be sure to thank it, then kill it. But the seeker's dream shattered when Megatron had said they were going to Earth and first retrieve Blitzwing before finding the All Spark. He thought that maybe he had found some sort of information about it to make their search go more smoothly.

"If I ever see that sad excuse of a Decepticon again…" Starscream muttered to himself.

"Stop your sniveling, Starscream," Lugnut roared. "Mighty Megatron has commanded us and we shall obey, for we are-"

"Will you just _shut _up?!" Starscream shouted. Maybe Lugnut could skip to the head of the seeker's killing list above Blitzwing.

*

"Icefire, yo! There's something wrong with him!" Darkjaw ran up to the dragon, out of breath.

"Who are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Blitzy."

"There's something wrong with him?"

"Yes!"

"And you just _now _figured that out?"

"No, no, no. I don't mean _that_! I mean that each time I speak to him, he stops in a middle of sentence and says something else like 'He's coming to get me', and he says it in a different language."

"Tell to me later, I need to talk to Biba, okay?"

"Sure…" the shark sighed and ran off back to the lake to test if Blitzwing would glitch out on him again. Icefire walked over to a band of thick trees where she was sure Biba was hanging around. And speaking of hanging around…

"Hi!" the monkey screeched, hanging by her tail, upside-down, on a tree and nearly scared Icefire to death since she was so close. "Did I scare you?"

"Close," the dragon breathed. "You were close."

"Darn," Biba pouted. "I wanted to see you fall backwards…"

"I, uh…wanted to ask you something. It's about Megatron coming here." Icefire scratched her head, not knowing how the monkey would respond.

"Yeah?" Biba stared blankly.

"Well…Do you think you're ready? You know, to fight whatever comes your way?" Icefire tried to make this sound so that Biba could understand it. "Just think for a bit, close your eyes." Biba obeyed. "Now, you see Megatron, the big, scary man…What are you gonna do?"

"I'm-a run up to him an' tear his face off!" Biba cheered, still having her eyes closed. Icefire smiled.

"Think you can dodge him if he tries to hit you?"

"Bring it on!" Biba opened her eyes and smiled. "Sis taught me that."

"Typical Panthora…" Icefire smiled back and her hand out. The monkey was so small that she was almost smaller than her hand. "Want to go play with Bubba?" That was what Biba used to call her older brother.

"Bubby!" she shouted joyfully. "Where's Bubby?"

"He's at home, in the cave."

A sad look went across Biba's face. "I wanna go back home," she repeated for another time that Icefire had lost count.

"We'll get home somehow, but for now, we have to fight the big, bad meanie man!"

"Yeah!" Biba grunted. She held out her fists and gave her tail to the dragon. "Hold me back!"

Icefire laughed at the little girl's enthusiasm. On the way back, Icefire heard a gunshot ring out across the land. She looked up to see the birds fly away from the spot where the bang took place. She locked onto its location and let Biba go to follow. Biba started swinging on trees, following Icefire who flew low to the canopies. She landed twenty meters away from the shot and whispered to the monkey to be quiet as they tip-toed to the area. Icefire shook back a couple of branches to take a better the look. She saw a female deer laying on the ground, dead.

"Oh!" Biba gasped. Icefire told the monkey to be silent once more and the monkey took her paws to her mouth and stared at the fallen deer. Icefire took another glance and spotted two men in hunter's clothes walking towards the deer. One poked it with its gun.

"Is it dead?" the other asked.

"Yep, she's dead all right," the man answered. Icefire's and Biba's minds were set on the men and suddenly their vision changed as they saw them. There was a circle around one head and another around the other. A line formed from each circle and on top of the circle gave their names. The man who poked the doe was named Marty Stevens and the other was his blood relative, Henry Stevens.

"Do ya think we'll get caught doing this?" Henry said shakily.

"What, way out here in the deepest part o' the forest? Yeah, right." He spat at the ground. "Start usin' yer head, moron."

Icefire growled deeply. She knew it was wrong to kill a female deer, especially just outside the camping zone. She wished she had a few Native Americans over here to teach them how to hunt. What she heard from her favorite history teacher was that they gave the animals a chance to escape. If they didn't escape that meant their god allowed them to have it.

Apparently, the brothers heard her and held their guns close.

"What wassat?" Henry whimpered. Marty took out a cigarette and lit it.

"Prob'ly just a wolf," he muttered. He loaded a bullet and cocked his gun. He held it up to his dominant eye and looked for the owner of the growl. "Come out, ya stupid animal!"

"_Stupid_?!" Biba shouted. The Stevens brothers flinched and stared at where Biba had shouted. They saw a little metal monkey and a large mechanical human-dragon…and they looked angry!

"Did you just call us stupid, you filthy little hunter!" Icefire shouted at the paralyzed men. "It's against the law to shoot a doe, and you know it! I should turn you in for this!"

Marty took his hand to the side of his head. "I must-a had too many beers."

"You shouldn't even have _any_ by the dirty looks of you!" the dragon growled. She stepped out from the trees to reveal her entire form. The brothers held their guns up and their eyes wide open. "Now, answer this riddle."

"What?!" Henry screamed.

"It's every dragon's law; the riddle's answer decides the human's fate. If you answer correctly, I'll let you live, but you shall still be tortured, then turned in to the rangers. If you fail, you die where you stand."

"But that's not fair! We don't want either!" Marty shouted.

"It is fair!" Icefire roared, baring her teeth. They seemed to grow larger the angrier she became. "Either you live or you die."

The brothers looked at each other with fear and figured they were right. "Lay it on us."

Icefire smiled and looked at Biba on her shoulder. "Now, don't answer this for them, okay? I've told you this before." Biba nodded rapidly and the dragon turned back to her victims and started her riddle.

"As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven sacks. Each sack had seven cats. Each cat had seven kits. Kits, cats, sacks, and wives; how many were going to St. Ives?"

"One!" Henry blurted out. Marty slapped his brother.

"Are you nuts?!" he shouted. "There's more than that!"

"No! It's a trick question! 'How many were goin' to St. Ives'? At the beginning of the riddle, she said only 'I was going to St. Ives' and on the way she met the man. On the _way_ there! The answer is one!"

"Smart man," Icefire grinned. Marty looked up at the dragon in fear, but Henry still held the smile on his face from when he answered right. The smile disappeared as Icefire transformed into a true dragon and Biba into a real form of a monkey. The dragon picked up both the men by the hoods of their coats with her teeth and lifted into the sky.

"You said ya'd let us live!" Marty screeched.

"What I said was 'I'll let you live and be tortured, then turned in to the rangers'. You're coming back with me for stage one of our agreement."

"Wow, Ith-fire," Biba whispered. "You hard-core!"

"Thanks, Biba," Icefire replied, and flew on to the cave where she saw Nightfang and Goldwing waiting for her. They stared buggy-eyed at the men that the leader and the youngest of the Maximals had captured.

"Are you insane?" Nightfang roared, making the brothers jump. "We were supposed to keep ourselves secret!"

"Don't worry, 'Fang," Icefire grinned and transformed back. "When we're done with them, they'll look so banged up that the rangers will think they're just crazy."

"Well, the kitty cats ought-a have fun with this!" Goldwing smirked. "Can you tell us what they did?"

"They killed a pretty deer!" Biba whined.

"They shot a doe outside the camping zones," Icefire cleared up. "It's against the law to shoot here and least of all shoot a female deer. I gave them a riddle to answer, one gave the right answer, and now I'm letting them live long enough to be tortured and put into jail."

The golden eagle and the blue wolf stared at what they thought was their cousin. Nightfang spoke up. "And _why_?"

"This is _our _forest now, Nightfang," Icefire said with pride. "We're going to protect it. If we ever can, we'll go back to Jacksonville and be like the superheroes we wanted. But first, we're starting just a bit smaller than that." She looked at the trembling men. "Consider yourselves as a warm-up before the _real _fighting begins. Be honored! We might even think of you as we're slaying off Megatron." She smiled and looked at Goldwing. "Did you need to speak to me?"

"Oh! Uh…Aries wants to go home a bit earlier than we anticipated. She wants to go home _now_!"

"But it's bright out! We can't go flying or running out when the sun's out!"

"You broke that li'l law o' yours a long time ago, missy!" Marty howled.

Icefire shot a glare at the drunk and growled. "I'll deal with you later." She looked back to Goldwing. "Tell her she might have to suck it up for a few more hours. At least until nine thirty."

"I'll be sure to tell her. Hey, did you see Tigress anywhere? I've been looking for her for ages now."

"I'll sniff her out."

"All right." He walked past her and to the Stevens. "As for you guys! We're gonna play a little game that's based on the movie _Jaws_. Ever heard of it?"

"The shark movie?" Henry asked dumbly.

"No, the bunny movie. Yes, the shark movie!" Nightfang roared. "Jeez! This is why I tried to get Mom to stop smoking! Goldwing, go get Darkjaw, I'll hold 'em here."

"You got it!" The eagle took off to get his brother and returned shortly with a shark that had a crooked smile on his face.

"Hunters, eh?" he chuckled. "What comes around goes around in this forest, boys! Let's see if they can swim!" The boys cheered and lifted the struggling men.

"Please! I beg you, let us go!" Henry pleaded.

"Get yer grimy hands off o' me!" Marty shouted. Nightfang shook his head.

"So rude," he mumbled. He went on fours and held the man in his teeth. Goldwing flew off in the air above the lake and had Henry in his claws. Once he was high enough above the lake, which was about four hundred feet, Henry screamed for his own mother.

"You're such a wimp!" Goldwing laughed. He used his heightened eyesight to look for the signal Darkjaw was supposed to give him. He saw the shark on the surface of the water, waving his hand around for him to drop him. Goldwing looked over to Nightfang who nodded in agreement. The wolf threw Marty fast and far over near Darkjaw and Goldwing dropped Henry right out of the sky, the man screaming like a girl. All three of the male Maximals cheered and laughed. Nightfang howled, Goldwing squawked, and Darkjaw roared. The Stevens finally dropped into the water and moved frantically, wondering where the shark might have been by now. Behind them? To the side? In front?

Below.

Darkjaw deliberately brushed by Marty's shoes softly and the brother screamed.

"What the hell was _that_?!" he shouted. Darkjaw swept his fin along Henry's back, scaring him stiff. Henry could not say anything, he was so cold! He'd seen _Jaws _before. It seemed harmless to him, but now that he was living a remixed version of it, he was counting his blessings and praying to God to live. As if he read his mind, Darkjaw stuck his head out from behind him and growled.

"Don't worry," he chuckled. "Icefire said to keep you guys alive. But she didn't saw _how _alive."

Both brothers were frozen. This thing was going to torture them until they were just barely living.

"I'll give you twenty seconds. How does that sound?" Darkjaw offered.

Marty didn't hesitate. "Swim, man! Swim for your life!" He splashed through the water as if he was actually going to have a good chance of out swimming a shark. They were so far away from the shore that all hope inside them had died. Darkjaw counted down from twenty and ducked under the water right after he transformed. He swam at least one hundred and thirty miles per hour and caught the two men at the same time in his jaws. He brought them under the water, swam back up, half his body over the water, and threw the brothers to the side, letting them fly fifty feet away from where he was.

"We're in deep shit because o' you!" Henry screamed at his brother.

"Me?!"

"We wouldn't _be _here if you hadn't shot the deer!"

"Sure, just blame it on me! You're the one that wanted to go huntin'."

"Screw huntin'! I'm gonna do a backyard barbeque like e'rybody else!"

"Damn it, he's comin'!"

Darkjaw swam at top speed--three hundred miles per hour--and caught up to them in no time flat. He grabbed them with his back fin and swam to the shore where three more figures where waiting for them. The shark dropped them on their faces into the dirt and bowed to the beings.

"Ladies," he said.

"And they said chivalry was dead," one smirked. The Stevens looked up to see two giant half-cats and that little monkey from before. Biba had her arms crossed and looking _really _ticked off! The other two had their hands on their hips and smiled evilly down at the men.

"They were wrong," said Tigress. "Thanks for getting me, Biba; this might be fun!" She crouched to the ground and leaped at the men. Henry dodged it, but Marty was way too slow and was trapped under the tiger's crushing pressure of her paw. He felt his bones crack and his lungs looking for air he couldn't capture.

"Henry!" he choked. He held out his hand, hoping his brother would help him out, but Henry was too terrified as he watched his brother slip away.

"Icefire said not to kill him!" Biba screeched. Tigress released her grip.

"Oops. My bad," she sighed. "Is he…?"

"You'll have to…try 'gain," Marty gasped. "I'm still alive…" He choked and a few drops of blood seeped through. Henry gagged as he stared at the dark red liquid. He looked up and saw the monkey stand above him.

"So, I'm _stupid_, huh?" she said. She cracked her knuckles and it took Henry five seconds to realize what she was about to do. She grabbed him by the pants before he crawled away and slapped the man until he had a black eye and bruises across his face. "I'm done," she said, and handed him to Panthora. The panther bowed like a ballerina and took the man.

"Welcome to Panthora's Corner of Pain. We ask you to beg for mercy and scream like a five year old school girl. But please, for the tormenter's sake, do not pee in your pants."

Henry screamed bloody murder and Panthora twitched at hearing it.

"That was…pretty good!" she sighed. She growled at the man and he whimpered again. She roared at him next, baring her sharp teeth, and almost dug them into his back. She only went two inches deep and the man begged her.

"Please! Just kill me while yer at it!" he shouted.

"Sorry!" Panthora sang. "Icefire's orders. You'll have to take your complaints to her." She squeezed the hunter until she heard a loud gag come from him. She loosened her grip and watched as his body went limp and he passed out.

A few hours later, the hunters woke up on the floor of the Maximals' cave and stared at the blood on each other's faces. Definitely not like in the movies. This was more frightening and made them realize what horrible things they've done _before _they shot down the deer. Had that dragon girl been spying on them or something?

"Morning, boys." Speak of the devil.

"You bitch," Marty spat. "Let us go. You said you would."

"I will let you two rest up a bit. You're going to need the energy when you want to explain to the rangers what happened to you. But, you can tell a half-truth and say you were mauled by animals." Icefire chuckled. "Darkjaw's got some fish for you over in the corner if you ever find the strength to get hungry. Apparently all we can serve any human around here is fish and lake water."

The Stevens were confused but thankful that the dragon allowed them to live and have some food and drink after they were tortured. Henry crawled over to the pile of fish and didn't care if they smelled bad or not. Food was and is food. He grabbed a large bass, took a pocket knife out, and cut the scales off the fish to take a bite. It wasn't as good as the ones his friends cooked, but it was something. He grabbed another after he was done and walked over to his brother and handed it to him.

"Eat while ya can," he said. Marty accepted the fish and ate it like a savage. He was glad he wasn't picky.

Twenty minutes later, Icefire came back.

"You two look like you're ready," she said. "Tigress will drop you off near the ranger station and you two can go from there. If you refuse the rangers, we will hunt you. You want this to happen again?"

"No, sir," Marty joked, hoping the dragon would find it offensive. Icefire just smiled and called Tigress over. She transformed into the four-legged, striped cat and softly lifted both the men onto her back. She turned and walked off into the forest.

"You boys okay?" she asked. The men remained silent. "Hey, sorry for almost killing you."

"Whatever…" Marty groaned.

"Well, they don't call me Tigress for nothing. I was destructive _before _I was like this."

Henry sat up straighter. "Before?"

"Shut up!" Tigress hissed. "We're here." She tipped her back to the side and let the men run off towards the ranger station. Marty waved his arms shouting "We shot the doe! We shot the doe!" Tigress giggled at the scene and prowled off back to the cave.

"Well that was fun!"

xXx

Author's Note: Just thought this would be a bit of fun to type up. *evil giggle* Honestly, the cats got more fun out of it. Icefire just had the pleasure of trying to trump them and scaring them to near death.


	12. I've Got A Secret

Chapter XII

"God, that was so much fun!" Panthora shouted. The Maximals were still talking about how much fun it was to torture them. Aries was standing below them, wondering what the heck they were saying. Darkjaw explained to her about the Stevens and how they shot a doe outside the camping zone. Panthora said she was glad it happened because she saw in those two the other forms of crimes they had committed. Apparently they caused a couple of drive-by shootings as well as store stick-ups. Icefire said that was all the more reason to torture them.

"So, you guys just helped in capturing two criminals that police have been trying to nab for a while?" Aries said, trying to talk to be able to think.

"I guess so," Goldwing shrugged.

"And we got 'em good!" Tigress cheered, giving a high-five to Biba.

"I wish I would've seen you guys beat the Stevens," Aries sighed. "I would have given them a piece of my mind as well."

"What, you got a grudge against them or something?" Nightfang laughed. He saw that Aries wasn't smiling and the laughter quickly died. "They did something, huh?"

"I don't feel like talking about it right now. I'll tell you later." Aries just about whispered. Nightfang shrugged, not really caring, and went back to chattering about the moment. Aries sighed, not feeling very happy, and walked out of the cave. She sat on the edge of the platform and watched as the sun set down beyond the horizon. Tigress had followed her out and sat next to her in beast form.

"You feeling okay?" she asked.

"It's just the Stevens," Aries moaned. "They…well, they did something to my friend."

Tigress leaned back. "I thought you said you didn't have any."

"Well, I had plenty when I was in fourth grade and then I only had one in fifth. Now I have none in sixth. Her name was Elizabeth. But I always called her Lizzie or Beth."

"What happened to her?"

"We were at the movies one day. And because the movie had so much action in it, we had to run around a bit. You know how it is with little kids. Beth and I ran towards the street. I stopped right at the sidewalk because I knew it was dangerous, but Beth wanted to keep going to get to the other side. I heard a few gunshots down the road and yelled at Beth to come back. She looked at me like I was crazy for a second and stopped in the middle of the street. Once the headlights were shining off of her, she stared back at them and was paralyzed. I shouted her name one more time and…"

Aries stopped. She remembered it like a bad dream. Tears started swelling in her eyes and she couldn't force them back any longer. They found their way out and ran down her cheek and on her shirt.

"And?" Tigress was eager to hear.

"She was ran over," Aries said, choking through the tears. "She hit her head so hard that when she saw me again, she didn't even recognize me. Not even her parents did anything to make her remember. They said it was my fault that she lost her memories in the first place."

Tigress didn't know what to say. You could tell someone that you were sorry, but sorry couldn't fix anything. But you just couldn't sit there and say nothing.

"Just think as if we avenged her for you, 'kay?" Tigress smiled. "Your friends are ours."

"Thanks, Tigress." Aries leaned over and laid her head on Tigress' arm. The Maximal may have been metal, but she still had the warmth of a furry cat. She felt Tigress shift a bit and hooked something around her neck. Aries looked down to see what it was; a piece of the All Spark.

*

Aries woke up in her bed, not knowing how she had gotten there in the first place. It must've been Goldwing that flew her back; she would've remembered waking up due to a bumpy ride on the back of a four-legged Maximal. She stretched and yawned, getting the sleep out of her. Her eyelids were still drooping, telling her to go back to sleep. She ignored them and got out of bed. She thought for a bit and remembered that today was Saturday; movie day at the Drake household.

"Aries!" her mom said, coming in without knocking. "You're back! When did you come home?"

"Uh…" Aries groaned. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say eleven."

"Oh, well, we were sleeping at eleven," Samantha said. "I guess that's why we didn't hear you come in."

"Yeah…"

"Well, listen; we're going to the movies at seven and see _Planet 51_. It's supposed to be funny, but previews like to lie sometimes."

"Okay…"

For the time before they went to see the movie, Aries had nothing to do but play her Nintendo DS and watch TV. Occasionally she would read a book so her eyes wouldn't hurt from staring at too much technology. Seven came around slowly and Dylan called everyone out.

"Come on, Sam!" he shouted. "It's time to go! I don't care if your make-up's half done or not, we're leaving!"

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Samantha said, running down the steps. Aries was slowly following her and her mom turned around and helped straighten out her daughter's shirt.

"Mom, it's fine," Aries assured her.

"Hold on, you got something…" She licked her fingers and brought it to Aries' hair, fixing a stray lock.

"Mom!"

"Samantha!" Dylan repeated. "Let's go already!"

"Okay, I'm coming."

Aries' dad mumbled something and got into the driver's seat of the SUV. Her mom ran in to the passenger and Aries was stuck in the back. All they way there, she felt like she was on another road trip and whatever was passing by, the window acted like a television box that you couldn't hurt your eyes with.

The movie wasn't too bad; it was a family sort of thing. It wasn't stupid, which seem to be really popular in children's shows and some teenage shows that had a sick sense of humor. Once she came back out of the theater, she saw someone she really didn't feel like seeing.

"Mom, hide me!" she said, getting behind Samantha as if she was a shield.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's Jericho; this guy from school!" Aries whispered harshly. "He's one of those boys who think they're 'all that in a bag of chips'. Crap, here he comes!"

"Aries, you're being ridiculous! Stay here while I go to the restroom." She took off, leaving her daughter standing by herself.

"Mom!" she shouted to her. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned around. Jericho wasn't smiling, but at least he didn't look mad or anything.

"What you doing here?" he asked.

"If you'd ask anyone else here, they'd have the same answer, don't you think?" Aries joked. It worked and Jericho gave a deep chuckle.

"Right, stupid me…"

"Aren't you going to tell me to get out your way or something? I mean, what if any of your buddies saw you with me?"

"They're not here. Besides, I only keep that up to keep a reputation. I'm with my parents right now."

"So am I. Are they annoying the heck out of you?"

"Like the stunt your mom pulled when I was coming?" Jericho smiled.

"Something like that," Aries sighed. There was a slight awkward silence until Jericho decided to break it.

"I don't see you talk to any of your friends."

Aries shot him a near terrified look. "Huh?" There was no way he could know about the Maximals!

"I just see you sit against the wall and read that book of yours. And in class, everyone is whispering around, calling you a freak because you don't talk at all. Don't you have friends anywhere?"

"I do, but not here," Aries said, telling the truth.

"Where are they? Do I know 'em?"

"No, they, uh…live near Keystone. An hour's ride over."

"Oh…Could I meet them someday?"

"Why am I even talking to you?" Aries said, changing the subject. "You've been mean to me before, and now…I don't know."

"Hel-_lo_? I told you I had a rep to keep."

"Screw the rep! I could tell who your friends are just by lookin' at ya! They're so straight they're perverted, they ask girls for their number before their name, and they think they're top dog around when there's something bigger than them going on outside in the _real _world! Like an-"

Aries stopped for second before she thought about what else she was going to say. She was about to mention the alien invasion that was soon to happen, but that would make no sense to Jericho and she would be back to where he was.

"Right on the spot," Jericho whispered.

"I'm a girl, I'm supposed to understand this stuff!"

"Hey, what's that?" Jericho brought his hand near her chest and grabbed the gem of her necklace in the palm of his hand. It was the All Spark fragment that Tigress had given her.

"It's nothing," Aries lied. She took the gem out of his hand and left it there.

"It's shiny," he sighed. "Where'd you get it?"

"It was a gift."

"Looks like a pretty expensive gift. Is that real diamond?"

"I don't know. I never bothered to check."

"So wait, you…" He paused and stared at her, wide-eyed. "You stole it?!"

"Shush!" Aries whispered. "You can't say stuff like that in a movie theater in the first place, and _no _I did not steal it! It was given to me by a friend."

"The ones in by Keystone?"

"Y-yeah. Them," Aries stuttered. Jericho gave her another one of his famous glares and growled.

"You're keeping something," he said. "Tell me what it is, or you'll be the laughing stock of the school on Monday, I swear to it!"

Aries was stuck between a rock and a hard spot. The rock being the secret of the Maximals and the hard spot, of which would be extremely difficult to get out of, was Jericho blabbing off how much of a freak she really is. She decided that if Jericho could play "cool boy" he could definitely keep a secret. So Aries took out a sheet of paper that was stored in her pocket.

"Got a pen?" she asked. Jericho reached into his own pocket and gave her a blue pen. She wrote down on the paper and gave it back to him. "Come to this address at eleven. You'll get your answers then."

"Promise?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Scout's honor," Aries promised, sticking up three fingers. Jericho smiled and walked off as her mom came back out of the restroom.

"So how'd it go?" she asked with a sing-song tone to it. Aries sighed and walked off, her mom trailing behind, asking her again and again of how her little chat had gone.

xXx

Author's Note: Kind of boring having one human with seven Maximals, huh? Thank you, Jericho, for being such a pain in the ass!


	13. Second In Command

Chapter XIII

Jericho came by at eleven, just like Aries had told him. His mama always told him that curiosity killed the cat, but his comeback was the same car that killed that cat had a couple of drunkards in it. He thought that was a laugh.

He tapped on Aries' window and she sped up to open it. Without warning, he climbed through the window, almost making her jump.

"So, give me some answers," he demanded.

"Just wait, he'll be here any moment," Aries whispered.

"_He_?" Jericho emphasized. "There's someone else who questioned your insanity?" Aries shot him a snake's glare and erased it when she heard wings outside. Jericho jumped and looked up around on her ceiling, wondering what it was. He was about to grab Aries' old softball bat from first grade when she stopped him. She walked towards the window.

"What's up, 'Wing!" she called. "I hope you don't mind, but I got a guest coming with us."

"A guest?" a voice called outside. "Are you kidding me?! It's bad enough that the Stevens know about us, and now _you've_ turned on us!" Jericho walked towards the window next to Aries to see a _large_ bald eagle standing in Aries' backyard!

"What is that?" Jericho whispered shakily.

"This is Goldwing," Aries introduced. "Goldwing, this is Jericho. And don't worry, he's on our side now."

Goldwing bowed his head. "Good evening," he said in his most possible polite way.

"Hi" was all Jericho could get out of himself. Aries giggled and jumped out the window to Goldwing. She climbed onto his back and motioned for Jericho to come.

"Come on, Jerry!" she joked.

"Yeah, Chicken Little!" Goldwing smirked. "Let's get this show on the road!"

Jericho wasn't going to stand being called a chicken, inside or outside of school. He jumped out the window and stood by Goldwing's shoulder, looking up at the smiling girl.

"Just climb up," she said. "It's like rock climbing."

"But there's a problem," Jericho replied. "The rocks are covered in disgusting feathers."

Goldwing snapped his head around and hissed at Jericho. At the eagle's reaction to his joke, Jericho took a couple of frightened steps back. Aries petted the eagle on the back of his neck.

"It's all right," she said melodiously. "He didn't mean it at all. _Did _you, Jericho?"

"No, no, I, uh…I was just trying to be funny."

"Well, that was a bad joke!" Both humans could hear growling through the eagle's throat as he spoke and had his beak open, showing that he had teeth. Jericho slowly stepped forward, keeping his widened eyes on the bird's growling head, and took steps up on its shoulder and up behind Aries. He swung a leg over and held on by grabbing her waist.

"Ow! Don't pinch!" she cried.

Goldwing shot his head again so he could have an eye on both of them. He was mostly staring at Jericho. "Hurt her, and you'll be answering to me!"

"'Wing!" Aries snapped. Goldwing brought his head back and sighed.

"Thanks," Jericho whispered to her. He wasn't given any kind of warning when Goldwing shot into the air. He held onto Aries' waist so tight that he nearly squeezed her and his head was pressed against her back. He felt the girl laugh and told the eagle to go faster. Jericho cried to not listen to her, but Goldwing pretended he didn't hear him and went as fast as an airplane! At least Mach two. They made it back to Keystone in just less than ten minutes and Jericho felt like he was sucked back by a vacuum cleaner. Aries was hysterical and fixed her short, lavender hair. Jericho turned to the sound of another growl and saw giant metal animals coming from the water and from the cave! He hid behind Aries, thinking that was going to help.

"What is he doing here?!" the wolf snarled.

"We're not supposed to have strangers here!" the tiger growled. Five of the animals, tiger, panther, wolf, shark, and dragon, were baring their teeth at Jericho. One of them, a monkey that was just about taller than him, was the only one who was filled with curiosity and walked forward. Aries stepped to the side, showing Jericho with his arms over his head and his eyes closed. The monkey tapped him on the shoulder, but he refused to move. So Biba grabbed the boy by the leg and held him upside-down.

"Yo! This ain't cool!" he shouted. He looked at the monkey with surprise and the animal returned a look by smiling.

"Hi!" she cheered. "I'm Biba! What's your name?"

"J…Jericho," he stuttered. The rest of the animals lowered their growls and brought their teeth back into their lips. They stepped forward and Jericho screamed.

"Gah! Monsters!" he shouted.

"Jericho, relax," Aries laughed. "These are my friends, the Maximals."

Jericho stared up at the metal animals and back over to Aries. "The ones in Keystone, huh? At least you didn't _totally _lie to me. You just forgot to mention that they're _huge _and made of _metal_. Put! Me! Down!"

Biba obeyed and dropped Jericho. He fell head-first on the stone and his body went so that he lying on his back. He groaned in pain and Aries ran to his side.

"You all right?" she said, still smiling.

"I think it broke something…"

"Hey!" the monkey screeched. "I'm a _she_, not _it_!" Her body shifted around so that she looked half-human and the other Maximals did so as well. Jericho didn't have any more strength to freak out again, but he still had adrenaline telling him to do so.

"Sorry for the scare," Icefire apologized. "We're not too used to Aries bringing strays, in a way of speaking."

Jericho let out a light chuckle and sat up. He turned around to look at her. The moonlight shone off of her like a gemstone and he thought he had died just now. That was disturbed when he heard a splash coming from the right of the cave. The human-shark was walking onto the platform.

"He looks like a player to me," he growled. "Aries, be careful with this guy."

"It's all right," she grinned. "He doesn't talk to me at school because he's got a rep."

"Oh, it's one of _those _guys!" Icefire chuckled. Tigress crawled over to Jericho and laid across the ground next to him.

"I don't know about you guys," she said, grabbing the boy's chin, "but he's kinda cute!"

Jericho blushed. This was probably the first time a girl had made him freeze up like this.

"Quit flirting, kitty-cat!" Darkjaw howled. "Aren't you in love with one of those twins at your school?"

"Shaqwan's a jerk and Swaqwille's just a weirdo!" Tigress roared back and turned to Jericho again. "I don't mind this one at all!" She giggled and Jericho couldn't help but smile back.

"So, uh…how did you guys…?" He couldn't find the rest of the question. Jericho was too stunned by Tigress.

Icefire was the one that gave the story to Jericho. He was amazed at how something alien could change an entire being, especially since it looked like a large diamond. Once the dragon gave their human names at the end of their story, he recognized her and Tigress.

"What?! You two are the Summers?!" he shouted. He looked at Tigress first, still smiling back at him. "My brother's obsessed with you-" He looked to Icefire "-and I heard you sing once!"

"You heard me sing?" Icefire said in shock. She was nervous about singing because of how people were. The ones who _could_ sing were shy to sing, and the ones who _weren't_ shy _couldn't_ sing.

"Yeah, I did!" he exclaimed. "You were trying to sing all soft at lunch time, but I have a better hearing than some think."

"Then why don't you use that hyperacusis to listen to Mrs. Bennett once and a while to bump up that algebra grade?" Icefire snapped back. There were a few "ooh"s in the crowd and Nightfang shouted "Owned!" Jericho had flushed back into embarrassment. He hadn't had a girl diss him in forever!

"Priceless, dragon girl!" Goldwing howled, giving her a high-five. Darkjaw gave her one as well and said "In your face!" to Jericho.

Panthora was laughing for only a while and quickly became stiff. She sniffed out towards the lake and everyone noticed that she was staring at something.

"What is it, sis?" Nightfang whispered.

Panthora was still as stone and didn't speak for a bit. Once everything was deafeningly quiet, they heard an explosion come from at least forty miles away.

"They're here…" she whispered.

The Maximals were solid. There was no way!

"We're not leaving, yet!" Icefire ordered. "Stay in your places and wait for them to come to you!"

Aries grabbed Jericho off the ground and both of them ran behind a rock outside the cave. They peeked behind it and saw the Maximals stand in a fighting position.

"What are they doing?" Jericho whispered. "What's here?"

"Uh, I forgot to tell you, but I kind of dragged you into an intergalactic war," Aries said, giving a fake smile.

"Excuse me?" Jericho growled. He could handle pressure and things like that, but being brought into a war was something else.

"See, there's this guy, Megatron, out there that's looking for the All Spark that had transformed these guys." She pointed to the Maximals. "When one of his troops came by, he sort of blabbed that Megatron wanted universal control. So now they have to fight him."

"Well that sounds _fan_tastic!" Jericho exaggerated.

Icefire was focused on the smoke miles away that was caused by a falling alien ship. She looked to Panthora.

"Is he sending anybody?"

"Just one," Panthora sighed. "Just one…"

"There!" Biba shouted. She pointed to the sky and every eye was locked onto a trail of smoke that was leading up and over towards them. The being flew over them at the speed faster than and airplane and the Maximals had ducked to the rock to not get hit by it.

"Goldwing, you and me!" Icefire shouted. She took off to the sky with the eagle following behind and they were about thirty feet away from the intruder. Icefire got a good lock on him and got the alien's name: Starscream. She saw the soldier transform into a human-like jet plane and spin around to look at the two Maximals. He brought his arms forward, showing the guns that were latched on them, and got ready to fire.

"Look out!" Icefire screeched. Starscream fired and missed, due to the dodging of his null rays. Icefire kept flying towards him without the Decepticon noticing through the smoke, and tackled him in the air. Both flying machines fell down towards the lake. Starscream took a left arm and punched Icefire in the face. The dragon took her own hand and slashed the dark seeker's neck. The Decepticon cried out and glared sharply at her.

"What are you!" he shouted angrily. Icefire didn't have time to answer and they fell through into the lake. Half of the dragon was about to choke now that she was half-organic. Starscream noticed this and grabbed the girl's neck. He powered his thrusters and forced both of them down into the lake. He hit the bottom and held the struggling dragon down into the mud.

"Part of you is organic and the other is Cybertronian, just like…" He thought of Black Arachnia and how she had changed. "Where is it, human?! Give me the All Spark!"

Icefire couldn't say anything. She was too busy trying to get oxygen when she knew she couldn't find it. Right when she thought she was dead, something rammed into Starscream and tackled him down.

"Swim, Icefire! Swim!" Darkjaw shouted to her. The dragon used whatever strength she had left and pushed against the bottom of the lake and shot up towards the surface. Darkjaw had Starscream pinned down into the mud, creating some dust clouds below the water. Starscream struggled to be released and Darkjaw gave up.

"Filthy half-breed!" Starscream shouted, and fired his rays at the young marine. In the dust cloud, Darkjaw transformed into a shark and lunged at Starscream. He grabbed onto the seeker's arm by his teeth and dug them through at least a few inches.

"Let go, mutant organic!" Starscream screeched, pounding his fist on the shark's mouth. Darkjaw had more strength in his mouth than he did in any part of his body and held on tight. Starscream shook his arm, hit the shark several times with both his fists and on the lake bottom, but nothing was working. Darkjaw used his own strength and spun around in circles, dragging Starscream in the dirt. Water and mud got into the seeker's turbines and system so he couldn't escape. Darkjaw finally stopped after fifty turns and swam upward. He threw Starscream up into the air and transformed back to his human form. He moved his hands upward and two columns of water shot towards the seeker and the pressure of it forced against both sides of him. Once the water fell back to the lake, so did Starscream. He floated on top of the surface and groaned.

"You can't stop me…" he moaned. "I am Starscream, the preordained leader of the Decepticons…I deserve respect…"

"Just say 'Parley' and I'll take ya back, ya whiner," Darkjaw said in a rude tone.

"Parley…?"

"Close enough." The shark grabbed Starscream by the head and dragged him back to the rock. The land Maximals growled at the seeker.

"What are doing, Darkjaw?!" Aries screamed. "He's a bad guy!"

"You should just kill 'im now!" Jericho supported her.

"If I kill him, I'll be just as bad," Darkjaw sighed, hauling the seeker up onto the center of the platform. He laid him down next to Icefire. She had swallowed so much water that she passed out. Starscream was too weak to move, but he was able to rock his head over to look at the dragon he'd almost slain. For a split second, he was filled with hate for the dragon, but something changed when he took a good look. The sky blue scales looked almost white; illuminated by the Earth's moon. He nearly regretted killing her. She was beautiful…for a techno-organic.

"You almost killed her, you son of a-!" Tigress was ready to swing a punch to avenge for her sister when Nightfang stopped her. He grabbed her paw before she could bring it towards the Decepticon.

"Not now," he said. Tigress, not in any control, shook her fist away from his grasp and punched her sister's near killer in the stomach. Starscream gave out a groan and felt like the energon he drank a few hours back was about to come back up.

"You almost killed my sister!" she shouted. She was about to swing again when Darkjaw and Panthora grabbed each arm and held her back. Biba held onto the leg. "Let go of me!" She took a deep breath in and spewed fire over Starscream. Darkjaw used his own ability and plugged Tigress' mouth with water and doused Starscream. The seeker was going to say thanks, but he'd rather not talk to these vile creatures, whatever they were. Goldwing took the exhausted Tigress and took her inside. Panthora stared at Starscream as he stared back.

"Panthora, was it?" he grinned. "You look better when you're solid."

"Monster!" she snarled, and almost felt like Tigress when she sprang forward. She pounced on top of him and pinned him down to make sure he couldn't move. She extracted her claws and brought them towards his face, until she stopped just a few centimeters from it. Starscream smirked.

"Are you sure you're not a Decepticon?" he whispered.

"I'll never be anything like you, vermin!" she spat. Panthora climbed off of him and stood back next to her brother.

"While I'm here, why don't you tell me where the All Spark is?" he smirked.

"Like we're really gonna tell you!" Jericho shouted. Aries pulled him back.

"Watch your glossa, human!" Starscream shouted.

"What the _heck_ is a glossa?"

"Just tell me where it is! Before I rip your head off!"

Those were the magic words to make Jericho step back. Aries stood in the back with him, trembling. Starscream looked back to the remaining Maximals standing above him. He decided to change the subject and see if he could earn their trust and find the All Spark himself. Then he'd destroy the likes of them. And once he got back to Megatron with the All Spark, the universe would be his to control!

"What are you…really?" he said. "I've never seen alternate forms like yours before." He looked over to Darkjaw. "And yours seems like the strongest. And you were able to survive in that liquid when the other wasn't."

"No way!" Nightfang shouted, pushing Darkjaw. "_I'm _the second-in-command here! That deserves something, huh?"

"Well, uh…" Darkjaw was flushed. "This, um…animal that I've got is called a shark. Biggest, baddest marine machine around!"

"I'm a wolf, I'm better!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Panthora shrieked. "A cat's _way _more agile than a stupid _dog_!"

A fight broke out between the three Maximals, which Starscream found very amusing. They wouldn't kill a Decepticon, but they would fight each other. How cute.

"Stop…" A moan sounded next to Starscream and he looked over. The Maximals stopped where they were; Panthora biting Nightfang's ear, Darkjaw ready to tear off the second-in-command's leg, and the wolf pulling his sister's tail. "I told you guys…not to fight…You said it yourself, 'Fang…Fight each other…or fight together…"

"She speaks," Starscream smiled. Icefire opened her eyes. They flashed bright blue to the Decepticon, but she didn't look alerted.

"You tried to kill me…." she groaned. "Now you want to soften up to us…Heh…You know, for an alien robot…you're really dumb."

"_What_?!"

"You heard me…" Icefire closed her eyes and smiled.

"Foul Earth creature! You're just like the Autobots."

"A: You're funny…B…I have no clue what an Autobot really is…Care to tell?"

"The Autobots were just a couple of scum that hid the All Spark from Megatron for the battle over Cybertron. We've spent four million stellar cycles looking for it. Now _where_ is it?!"

"Let me clear it up…Megatron became power hungry…and put together an army that were mad enough to do it…So, the Autobots fought back and _meant _to send it here…Now I see where the puzzle fits…And you guys tracked its signal before them…The Spark activated, sensing you guys, and changed us…Incredible…!"

"What do you mean it changed you? Weren't you like this before?"

"No…We were all human…changed into Earth's creatures…except for me…I'm a myth…" Icefire gave a soft laugh and continued. "So what about yourself?…Didn't Megatron send anyone else?"

"I quit," he lied. The best way to get access to the All Spark at this point was by lying.

"Why? Megatron become a burden?"

"In a way, yes. He beats only me if something goes wrong."

"That sucks…Sounds like he really hates you…You should've quit years ago…"

"Yo!" Nightfang spoke up. "You want me to leave you two alone?"

"Sure…" Icefire moaned, and gave out another laugh at how that sounded. "Why not?"

Nightfang shrugged and took the panther, shark, and monkey with him into the cave. Starscream felt sort of terrified lying next Icefire. She still had that weird affect on him. She was still as stone for a while until she opened her eyes and her eyes seemed to flash again.

"What are the stars like?" she asked.

"Excuse me?" This pre-human was making no sense. If he had any energy left, he would've left this freak a long time ago and just be done with it.

"What are the stars like?" the dragon repeated. "I want to know if our scientists were right."

"Well, uh…they're just clouds of white dust packed together."

"They're not large spheres, filled with hot gases?"

"Um…no?"

"I guess they were wrong after all…It must be a beautiful sight to see. Would you take me to see one if you could?"

Starscream felt his systems overheating. There was no way he could explain this. Every time she spoke of something fantastic, he had this strange feeling sweep over him like a wave. He didn't realize that she was waiting for the answer. "M…Maybe…"

"It's a yes or no question…" Icefire smiled. She moved her head to the side to look at him. Primus, she was gorgeous! "Would you take me?"

"Yes," Starscream whispered. He was unaware of everything that was happening. His self-diagnostic system told him that he was overheating too much, but he ignored it. He was too busy adoring the techno-organic.

"You're staring," Icefire laughed. "Are you in love with me or something?"

"Huh? No!" Starscream said, snapping back to reality. "Not at all! Never!" He turned his head away. _Slag it, why do I feel like this! _

"Denial…" Icefire muttered. "Typical male…No matter what species, they're the same, eh? Hmph…That's disappointing…"

"So what's your position in this group?"

"What's yours in the Decepticons?"

"I'm second-in-command. Now you."

"Leader of the Maximals."

Starscream stared at her with interested eyes. "_You're _their leader?!"

"Why are you so surprised?" Both Decepticon and Maximal stared at each other. For second, Starscream almost overheated again. Then his system blared, telling him that he was well rested up and ready to go. Obeying it, he stood up and stretched. He looked down at the smiling dragon girl. She held out a hand.

"You gonna help me up?" she asked. Starscream smiled back and held out his own hand, grasped hers, and lifted her back on her feet. "Thanks."

"Leader, eh?" He had a wandering optic on her. "I don't see it."

"Hey, I got us this far without killing us."

"Except you."

"Well-" She thought for a bit and shot him a quick glare. "Better me to die than them! That's how leader _should _go down!" She stormed away, back into the cave.

"I made her mad," Starscream chuckled. He called to her. "Do I come in or-"

"_You're_ sleeping out_side_!" Tigress answered for her sister. Starscream waited for a true answer from the leader, but since he didn't hear one he figured she might have agreed with the tiger. He sighed and laid back down on the rock.

xXx

Author's Note: Everybody always has to have Starscream fall in love with their OC, right? Come on! It's really all the attempts at killing Megatron, that I think, is what makes him hot. Then we have the protective ones, like Tigress, who completely disagree and give out an attitude. *snap*


	14. Riddle Me This

Chapter XIV

The whole time Nightfang and Panthora were eying Starscream as he slept. No one really trusted him, not even Icefire. They stayed perched on the rocks on the entryway to the cave and almost fell asleep watching him. The brother and sister agreed to take turns. Each time one felt sleepy they would wake the other up and the circle continued. Soon the circle was broken and Starscream woke up finding a sleeping panther and a snoozing wolf. He got up to try and sneak away from them and go find the All Spark, but something jumped him and…growled at him.

"Nice try," Goldwing smirked. He climbed off of the Decepticon, letting him stand.

"How long do you plan on keeping me here?" he said.

"You don't have to stay," Goldwing said with a smile. "You could always go back to Megatron. But you might want to do this; put some paint on ya, so it looks like you're bleeding. Then go to him and say how tough we are. You could be like 'They're mad, I tell ya! Especially the eagle, he's the toughest!' Something like that."

"Hmm," Starscream smiled back. "There's two things wrong with your theory. One: You are definitely not strong and two: we don't bleed red."

"Then purple for God's sake!" Goldwing shouted as he walked away. "Do _some_thing." Starscream's face turned into a frown and he looked at his sleeping guards. He raised his guns towards both of them and focused any anger he had on them.

"Do it and you'll answer to the rest of us," Tigress said. She was leaning against a tree behind him and Biba was on her shoulder.

"How many guards do I have?" Starscream asked, hoping the answer wouldn't be what he thought. Tigress held up seven claws and smiled. Starscream groaned and picked up a rock. He threw it over towards the lake and it splashed half a mile away.

"Cool!" Biba cheered. She started clapping.

"Good distance, bad landing," Tigress criticized. Starscream didn't look at them and walked off into the forest, the tiger and monkey following him. Biba swung on the trees ahead of them while Tigress stayed behind him.

"Can't you just leave me alone?" he said harshly.

"We have a right to be careful!" Tigress stuck out her tongue. "If you don't like it, go back to the Decepticons and never come back! You can forget about the All Spark. Icefire will never trust you enough to have it."

"We'll see about that," Starscream muttered. Tigress stepped in front of him, cutting him off. She growled.

"If you dare try to put any moves on my sister to get the All Spark, you're dead," she snarled. Biba let out a whimper, now scared of her cousin. Tigress grabbed Starscream's arm and turned around back to the cave.

"Let go of me!" he shouted. Tigress released his arm and looked at him. She crossed her arms.

"All right, you're let go, go. Shoo," she said. She moved her hand as if to shoo him away. "Go on, go."

"Don't speak to me like I'm a pet!" Starscream spat. He transformed into a Cybertronian jet and flew off into the sky. Tigress let out a long sigh.

"Yay!" Biba cheered. "He's gone!" Tigress laughed and walked back to the cave.

"Hey, where's Star-shitty?" Darkjaw joked.

"He ran off," Tigress said, smiling.

"Serves the guy right," Nightfang growled.

"Yeah, who knows what he would've done to Icefire to get the All Spark," Goldwing added.

"Guys, you make it sound like I'm a prostitute!" Icefire shouted. "Let's stop talking about the guy. He's gone, he's probably not coming back…and I spoke too soon." She looked up and saw Starscream circling around one area of the lake. He transformed and shouted to her.

"I challenge you to a race!" he said.

"Is he serious?" Icefire sighed.

"Seems that way," Goldwing said, trying to get a good look at the Decepticon. "Yeah, he's serious."

"Are you going to keep me waiting?!" Starscream shouted. Icefire growled. She didn't need a race to prove how much of a jerk this guy was being.

"Hold your horses!" she shouted. And she muttered to herself, "Starscream, you're pushin' it…" She stretched her wings and flew to the seeker. He was hovering in mid-air with his arms crossed and his eyes fixed on Icefire.

"So what's the catch?" said Icefire. "What do you want?"

"What else?" Starscream snarled.

"Okay, this is ridiculous," Icefire grunted. "There's no way I'm risking the All Spark for a dumb race."

"Afraid you'll lose?" Starscream smirked.

"Yes, and if I do, you'll give Megatron the All Spark--yes, I know you lied to me-- he'll use it against every living being that's in and outside this planet. We'll either become slaves, pets, or he'll kill us; I've no fricking idea what he'll do, but I know it's not good. I'm not risking the All Spark over a race for that to happen."

"Then what do you propose we do?" Starscream shouted. "If we can't race, and I'm sure you won't fight, then what?!"

Icefire had to think about it for a bit. There was no way she could pull this off for long. Starscream looked like he had the upper hand in this and soon, the dragon would have to give up the All Spark because…Wait…Dragon. That was it!

"Answer my question," she said with a half-smile. Starscream raised an optic ridge.

"Excuse me?!"

"Answer my question," she repeated. "If you answer correctly, you get the All Spark. If you fail, you leave. And you can take Blitz-brain with you who's chucking in a lot of water as we speak."

"Fine," he muttered. "What is it?"

"My voice is beautiful. I've dragged in men with it. I'm beautiful to them, but when they're close, they realize I'm ugly and fall down below with me. What am I?"

"What kind of question is that?!"

"You give up?" Icefire smirked.

"No!" Starscream took some time to think about it. This question made no sense at all. It had to be a trick. After ten minutes of hard thought, Starscream said, "I give up. What is it?"

"A mermaid."

"What the spark is a mermaid?" It hit him; it _was_ a trick. "You knew I wouldn't be able to get the question right! That 'mermaid' is an Earth creature!"

"Hardly," Icefire laughed. "A mermaid is a myth."

"You tricked me!"

"As you tried to do me. I'll have Darkjaw bring back Blitzwing and you two can run along, or fly along, and you can tell Mega-troll not to bother us or we'll have some fun. Understand?" Icefire glared at Starscream. The seeker was flabbergasted and didn't have much choice but to leave.

"I understand," he sighed. "Give me the fool and I'll be on my way." Icefire nodded and brought him back to the cave where six Maximals were waiting to hear what happened.

"Darkjaw, dig Blitzwing out of the lake bottom," Icefire instructed. "He and Starscream are going back."

"That easy?!" Tigress screeched. "What happened up there that made him say so?"

"I gave him a riddle and he failed," the dragon chuckled. She turned to Starscream. "You can have a head-start in front of your buddy if you'd like."

"He's not my _buddy_," Starscream spat. Taking advantage of the offer, he flew on back into the outer edge of the atmosphere and beyond where Megatron and the rest of his crew were waiting. How would that heap of scrap take it if he told him he lost the All Spark because he couldn't answer a question. Knowing that 'bot, he'd tear him apart and go back to claim war on the Maximals.

"Go on, Darkjaw," Icefire repeated. "Get the freak-a-zoid out of there. Goldwing, you make sure that he actually gets away from here."

"Yes, sir!" the brothers snapped. Darkjaw splashed into the water and transformed. Goldwing took to the air and did the same. He followed above Darkjaw and waited for the German 'bot to be let loose.

"What was the riddle?" Panthora asked Icefire.

"My voice is beautiful. I've dragged in men with it. I'm beautiful to them, but when they're close, they realize I'm ugly and fall down below with me. What am I?"

"Mermaid," Nightfang sighed. Icefire laughed. "Let me guess, he couldn't even get that right?"

"Nope," the dragon giggled. "He was pretty pissed off when he figured out the trick."

"So…he's gone?" Biba asked. "The big, scary man is gone?"

"That was only a helper of the scary man, Biba. The real one is coming, I know it. Can't you feel it, Panthora?"

"Once Starscream tells him I'll know for sure," the panther sighed. "But he'll definitely come, and he'll bring more than Fizz-head and Ego-man."

They heard a splash as Blitzwing flew out from the water and Goldwing followed behind, up into the blue morning sky. Darkjaw came back up and stood next to Nightfang. The wolf held a paw over his eyes to watch the two flyers leave.

"They're going…" Darkjaw said.

"They're going…" Nightfang continued. The bird and 'bot were now out of sight.

"And they're gone. Who's up for Chinese!" Darkjaw joked. Panthora raised a hand to add to the gag.

*

"Starscream, you FOOL!" the Decepticon leader shouted, slapping the seeker down to the ground. "You couldn't eliminate techno-organics, let alone ones much younger than yourself! I knew you were a disgrace to us all."

"I'm not in the least bit surprised," Black Arachnia muttered. Starscream made feeble attempts to stand up. His arm was sliced open and half of his face was torn.

"Humans, transformed by the All Spark itself," Megatron whispered. He turned to Starscream. "Do you have any idea where they may have hidden it?"

"No, sir," Starscream choked. "They wouldn't tell me, no matter what I said to them." As soon as he said that, Blitzwing came in for a crash landing.

"Let's zo zat again!" he said in his black face.

"They're careful, then. This might be interesting," the leader said, ignoring the 'bot.

"Oh, great Megatron, what is your next brilliant plan?" Lugnut said in his usual kiss-ass vocabulary.

"We attack the Maximals," he replied. "We'll use that little black creature. They won't know it was coming."

xXx

Author's Note: I'm bad at making riddles; the one with the Stevens I got out of a Dragonology book...Yes, I'm a dragonologist. I know a good deal about some, but I'm not done studying it yet. (That's how I found the frost dragon for Icefire)


	15. Just Touch It

Chapter XV

Icefire was the one to pick up Aries and Jericho this time. She almost blew her cover when she found someone standing outside their house. She recognized that house. It belonged to a police officer and she nearly saw Icefire fly over to Aries' place. Thankfully she didn't. Icefire lifted the two twelve-year olds on her back, between the wing sockets and her head, and flew faster than Goldwing over to Keystone.

Jericho and Aries looked around for the Decepticon, just to have a bit of fun with him.

"Where's the whiner?" Jericho laughed.

"He's gone," Nightfang said.

"He _escaped_?!" Aries screeched.

"No, no!" the wolf said. "We gave him a test. His first intention was to beat Icefire at an aerial race to get the All Spark."

"What did she do?" Jericho asked, getting interested.

"I refused," Icefire said. "Instead, I gave him a riddle to answer."

"Did he get it?"

"Do you see him around?"

Jericho felt dumb. If Starscream had gotten it right, all the Maximals would've been dead by now. And he would already have humans working as slaves for him. Or was that just Jericho's mind going on and on, just to think?

"What was the answer?" Aries spoke up.

"It was a mermaid," Darkjaw laughed. Aries joined in the laugh and figured it out. Icefire must've been smarter than she thought if she outwitted a Decepticon.

"Are you gonna do the same to Megatron?" she said, turning to the dragon.

"No," she answered coldly. "I'm not going to risk it. We'll have no choice but to fight. I'm trying to get this team ready."

"We could help!" Jericho shouted. Everyone gave him their attention. "Give us the All Spark. It could change me and Aries as well!"

"No!" Icefire scowled. "Our lives were taken from us. I'm not going to have the same happen to you!"

"There's no other way, Icefire!" Aries said, backing up Jericho. "Earth is our home, too. We have to protect it in any way we can!"

Icefire was shot. Aries started to sound like an army officer, ready to protect America. She figured the girl was right. But it wasn't fair to them! They had no idea what they were up against. There wasn't even time to train them; Megatron was coming and coming fast. But that was also another reason to change the two humans. She couldn't even beat off Starscream by herself. Sighing, she gave them what they wanted to hear.

"I'll get the All Spark," she said. The pre-teens' eyes lit up. "But I must ask, do you know what you're risking? You can't go back to being human. You'll live forever as a Maximal. Do you understand?"

They had to think about it for a bit. They agreed to which was more important; two different worlds, or their own lives.

"The Spark," Jericho answered boldly. Icefire nodded and turned her head to Aries to receive a confirmation from her as well.

"Yes," Aries said softly, clinging to Jericho's jacket sleeve and nodding her head slowly. Icefire gave another sigh and straightened her pose.

"It's decided," she said.

"But, Icefire-!" Nightfang started.

"It is decided!" Icefire emphasized a bit more. She calmed down and spoke again. "They want to protect their home. I'm going to give them that chance." She took off back into the sky to retrieve the All Spark. She came back five short minutes later with the blue, large, pulsing sphere.

"This is the All Spark?" Aries sighed.

"Yes," Icefire answered. "This is what caused to be what we are now. All you have to do is give it a touch."

"Just touch it?" Jericho said. Was it really that easy?

"Just touch it," Icefire repeated. The boy and girl walked up close to it so it was in arm's length. They turned to each other.

"I guess we don't have to worry about school anymore, huh?" Aries giggled. "No more reputation to hold."

"It wasn't much fun, anyway," Jericho sighed. They smiled at each other for one more time and switched their gaze back over to the All Spark. This was the object that changed seven lives. What was two more to it? They reached out slowly to touch it. As their hands got closer, the All Spark glowed brighter.

"Here we go again," Biba whimpered. Once the humans' hands were on the glowing sphere, it shot out bright beams of light and let out a force that almost pulled them back. The Maximals were almost blinded and had to cover their faces to protect themselves. The animals of the forest retreated as well. The light shined brighter and brighter until…

Silence.

Nothing was real anymore. Jericho and Aries woke up on the platform a few hours later. Both of their heads were pounding to the beat of their own hearts. They looked at each other and received a shock.

"NO!" Jericho shouted.

"We're still human!" Aries cried. "This can't be!" She looked at the All Spark. It was a dim blue color now. "Change us, _please_!" she begged.

"It didn't want to," said Panthora. The humans looked at her. She was laying on top of a high rock outside the cave. "The All Spark didn't believe you were ready."

"I don't care!" Jericho scowled at the panther. "I want to protect my home as much as the next guy! Make it change us!"

"I don't control the All Spark," Panthora said calmly. "Nothing does. You weren't ready, so it didn't change you. That's that."

"That sucks!" the boy screeched.

"Life sucks, boy," Panthora said, jumping off the rock, landing on fours, and crawling back into the darkness of the cave. "But no one has ever seen how much it really hurts except for Jesus Christ. He's been through Hell and he came back. He knows the most terrible pain there is to endure. Good _night_."

"I'm not through with you!" Jericho shouted. Panthora was already gone. He picked up a rock and threw it at the cave. "This isn't fair!"

"Let it go, Jer," Aries said, hugging him from behind. She could feel his pulse; it must've been going one hundred on the highway. "We're not ready."

"I am!" He moved his arms to be released and walked back to the Spark. He placed his hand on it. "Change me. _NOW_!"

The All Spark kept its state.

"Come on, you son of a bitch!" he scowled. "CHANGE ME!"

Nothing.

"Mother fu-" He kicked the All Spark and it budged only a bit. "I want to protect Earth _and _whatever planet you're from! You understand?! Change me!"

Negative response. Aries walked into the cave.

"Good night, Jericho," she whispered. The boy kept hounding the sphere to try and make it active. Whatever he did, nothing helped. After ten minutes of kicking, screaming, and cursing at it, Jericho gave up. His energy was wiped clean out of him and he had no more to bring upon what he wanted to be his future. He passed out before it.

At that same moment, the All Spark started to glow and pulse like it had done before. A voice as deep as the ocean sounded from it.

_Alpha and Omega. Beginning and end._

xXx

Author's Note: Ooh-WEE-woo! XD


	16. Ghost

Chapter XVI

"So you gave up, huh?" said a voice. Jericho woke up to find Tigress standing above him, smiling. "Well, sorry, Charley, but I think that's pretty lame of you to do that."

"Don't talk to me," he moaned softly. Tigress gave a "hmph" and sat down next to him. He was still face-flat on the platform.

"So…" she sighed. She took a look at the boy and smiled. A joke came into her head and decided to use it. She put her hands together so they formed a rectangle in the middle and put them near Jericho's face as if he was being filmed. "Mr. Jericho, you just got the biggest disappointment of your life! What are you going to do next!"

Jericho groaned and moved his face to the other side, away from her. She put her hands back on the platform and leaned over the boy.

"Ah, come on. You know I was just kidding!" she cheered, trying to make him feel happy. The boy was too depressed for a perk-up. He was down so deep that it was hard to get back up. "How about a song? _You are my sunshine! My only sunshine! You make me happy, when skies are grey! _Come on, you gotta know this one! _You only know dear, how much I love you! Please don't…take…-_"She started slowing down when she saw the boy didn't move at all. The last words she didn't sing but said really fast. "-my sunshine away. You know what?! You need a dip in the lake! Let's see if that'll get ya up!"

That plan didn't work. When her dad did that same joke to her, she would be up ready to go. Except it was with a cup of water, not an entire lake.

"Come on, Jerry!" she said, getting in a stance that said she was ready to pounce. "Tom the Cat's gonna getch ya!" He still didn't move. "Lighten up!…Please?" Nothing.

"Leave me alone," he moaned. Tigress, feeling like she failed, left Jericho to lay in the hot morning sun. A thought came to her head and used it on him.

"Hey, you know today's school, right?" she said.

"So?"

"_So_, you're missing school! I bet your mama's gonna be _maaaad_!" she teased. She thought that would work when he shot back at her.

"It's spring break, you idiot," he said. Tigress put her hands on her hips.

"Call me idiot, one more time!" she said in her best attitude voice. Jericho ignored it and grunted. Angry, and feeling like her fire-breath was about to come out, she jumped into the lake nearby and swallowed a bit of the water to cool herself down.

"What are you doing in my lake!" Darkjaw said, making a joke.

"Jericho's…Gah!" She forgot that she couldn't breathe underwater and swam back up to the surface., Darkjaw followed her up and both their heads were sticking out. "Jericho's a bit depressed since the All Spark won't do what he wants."

"That's typical, considering he's a stuck-up at the school, he probably gets everything," Darkjaw sighed. "What did you do to try and cheer him up?"

"Actually, at first I wanted him to just talk. _Then _I wanted to cheer him up! I stared singing that sunshine song from back in school."

"Sunshine song?"

"_You are my sunshine-!_"

"That's enough!" Darkjaw covered his ears…wherever they were. "I've heard that song _way _too many times from Biba, and I don't need a repeat!" He stuck his body back under the water and started to swim. Tigress realized the position she was in and gave out a scared meow. She swam back up to the cave platform and shivered.

"I got to remember I'm a cat!" she squealed. She shook herself like a dog and most of the water ended up on Jericho. He sat upright and shivered.

"God! That's cold!" he shouted. Tigress smirked and walked on fours over to him. Her face came from behind him and she smiled wickedly.

"Enjoy your shower?" she said. Jericho lashed out at her, but she dashed away.

"I'll shower you!" he said, changing it to a verb. "Get back here!" Tigress was already lost into the woods. "Women!"

"Careful," said a voice. Jericho spun around to find Aries standing behind him. "Most of us here are girls."

"Nothing but trouble," Jericho growled. He fixed his jacket on his body and walked away. Aries stood where she was and looked at the Spark that was still on the platform. Icefire walked out and they both exchanged looks.

"That's not a good spot for it," Aries said, pointing to the sphere but keeping her gaze on the dragon. Icefire sighed and smiled.

"Thanks for your concern," she said. She transformed and grabbed the sphere in her front claws. She took a last look at Aries with her gleaming eyes and flew off to hide it again.

"Damn, All Spark," Aries muttered. She was just as mad as Jericho but didn't want anyone to see or hear it. "They changed those guys. _They_ probably weren't even ready! They were just camping out, making s'mores, singing songs, grilling fish, just-just-just swimming in that lake! And now…!" She stuttered, trying to think. "God, it's not fair!"

She started to pout and crossed her arms. This is was not fair. _Not_ fair! Maybe Icefire gave them some faulty instructions. Putting your hand on the All Spark was too simple. There had to be something else! Aries tried to think of it, but nothing came up. None of the Maximals had any idea how to activate it when they were changed themselves. She and Jericho had done the exact same thing Icefire had done. It worked then and now, nothing. Was the All Spark losing its power?

"It's called _All_ Spark," Aries said to herself. "Of course it doesn't run out!" She stomped over to the edge of the platform, right over to lake. A little monkey came over to sit next to her, her feet hanging over the edge and dangled there.

"Hi, Aries!" she said.

"Hi, Biba," Aries said, trying to smile. It was kind of hard after yelling to yourself.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine," she lied.

"Liar." Biba knew. "What's wrong?"

"It's the stupid All Spark!" Aries cried. "It won't do a dang thing! It just sits there and does nothing and we're the ones that have to protect it!" She waited to hear a correction from Biba, of how the humans weren't the ones protecting it, but it never came. "Anyway, it's probably best if we didn't. Jericho might get a little hard-headed and competitive and I'd be too soft."

"If you do change to a Math-imal, you'll be okay!" Biba cheered and patted Aries hard on the back. Aries had to situate herself. Biba's strong paw almost tipped her over into the lake.

"Thanks, B," she said. "Nice to know someone believes."

"You think Ith-fire don't think so?"

"Not really."

"She does." Aries shot the monkey a look, but she avoided it and kept talking. "Well, I'm gonna go swim! Wanna come?"

"I don't have my bathing suit."

"Okay." Biba dove into the water and tried to find a big metal shark to play with. Aries stood and walked back to the cave. Nightfang, Panthora, and Goldwing were still sleeping. Nightfang was twitching in his sleep. Probably dreaming about chasing one of the cat Maximals. If that ever happened in real life, she would pay big money to see it in the front row!

Panthora started moving in her sleep as well. She was having a nightmare again and this was probably the scariest yet. At first the panther was whimpering softly and finally got to the point where her panther roars were coming from her throat, waking up the other two Maximals.

"STOP!" she shouted. "NO! DON'T!"

Nightfang ran over to his sister and tried to figure out how to wake her without having her lash out and hurt him. Goldwing stood on the other end and Aries just watched, feeling helpless.

"Sis!" Nightfang tried to whispered loudly so he wouldn't wake her too badly. "Sis, come on! Wake up!"

Panthora kept twitching and was soon wildly clawing at the air and her body was moving rapidly. "Make him stop! Please!" Nightfang had no choice but shook her arm, trying to get her up.

"Panthora!" he said. He thought another name would work. "Cari!"

That did the trick. Panthora woke up and accidentally clawed Goldwing in the face. The bird squawked and tried to kept the purple liquid from coming out of his face. Aries stood ten meters away from them, hands on her mouth, and wanting to do something. But what exactly could she do?

"Make him stop!" Panthora shrieked. Her eyes were wide and instead of glowing grey, they were now pink. She was stuck on the other side, over on Megatron's ship. He was torturing her. "It hurts! Stop!" Her head turned and Aries knew she was looking at someone she couldn't see, but only Panthora's spiritual side could. "Starscream, please! Help me!" She was turning to Starscream for help. Knowing the seeker was going to give her no help, her head kept switching from one invisible body to the next.

"_HELP_ _ME_!" Nightfang tried to hold her down with his arms. She flailed about, not feeling her brother at all but only the pain Megatron inflicted upon her. Aries noticed scars and scratches appearing on her body. With each large one that came, so did a roar from the panther. Either her power was now so strong her spiritual side was solid, or Megatron was stronger than her own.

"_MAKE HIM STOP!_"

"We've gotta bring her back!" Goldwing shouted, half blood and half energon still oozing from his face. Aries' heart stood still. She put her hand to her chest to see if it was even there, but she couldn't tell.

"I don't know how!" Nightfang roared back. "She won't listen to me! I can't even bring her back with a dream! Cari!"

"_IT HURTS_!" she shouted. If the Maximals couldn't do anything, how could Aries? The girl was frozen. She wanted to sit down, but she was scared what would happen if she even tried. She walked slowly towards the wolf and panther. The Maximal was still crying out and moving around, trying to get away from Megatron.

"_TOO MUCH! IT HURTS! STOP!_"

"Sis!" Nightfang shouted. "Listen to me! Fight him! Tear his face off; he's right there!"

Panthora was still. Her eyes stared up towards the rock ceiling and still glowed pink. She was still in her trance. The shade became red and she glared at her brother. A dark voice came from her, but it wasn't her.

"_Where's the All Spark_?"

Nightfang stared at his sister in horror and Goldwing was still across the room, holding half of his face. Aries knew what this was.

"Megatron…" she breathed.

"_Tell me the location and I may spare this girl's life_." Another scratch emerged all the way down Panthora's arm and burst with purple liquid. But now that Panthora was in Megatron's control, she didn't scream.

"Let go of my sister, you bastard!" Nightfang said, holding his sister's face. He held a paw out, claws extended and was ready to strike.

"_You wouldn't risk hurting your friend, would you_?" A wicked smile came across Panthora's face. Nightfang was scared and let down his paw. "_Good boy. Now, if you won't tell me where the All Spark is, tell me who your leader is._"

Nightfang didn't answer. Since he didn't obey Megatron, a slash cut across Panthora's face and Nightfang growled.

"It's Icefire!" Goldwing screeched. Panthora's head switched the gaze to the bird. "Icefire. She's the Maximal's leader! She's a blue dragon!"

"_Where is she?_"

"Panthora!" came a voice. Maximal and human alike turned their heads to see the shocked look on Icefire's face. "What happened?!"

"This is more scarier than _The Exorcist_!" Goldwing shouted. Panthora pushed Nightfang away and pounced on Icefire, pinning her down.

"_And they call you their leader_."

"You're Megatron, aren't you?" Icefire gasped. She changed her expression and became intense. "Let go of my cousin."

"_If I don't, then what_?"

The dragon couldn't risk another riddle. This wasn't even the best time for it. Her cousin was possessed by the Decepticon leader for crying out loud!

"You're smart, you know that?" she said, trying to buy some time. "You're using one of my soldiers to try and kill us. You know we won't hurt her." She moved her head slightly to Nightfang to signal him. The wolf got up slowly and grabbed a large rock. Icefire kept talking. "I'm impressed, actually. But you just got lucky that Panthora became a psychic."

"You're _impressed?_" Megatron chuckled through Panthora. "_My second-in-command couldn't even get the All Spark from a techno-organic. Honestly, you're-_"

"Heads up!" Nightfang brought the boulder on top of Panthora's head before Megatron had time to turn it around. She passed out, making the leader do the same and his control over her was shattered. The blast had more effect on Megatron than it did Panthora and she opened her eyes weakly.

"Nn…Bro…?" she moaned.

"Sorry," he said. "I didn't have a Bible with me. The rock was all I could think of. Go back to sleep."

*

"NO!" Megatron beat the controls. "We were so close! Slag those Maximals!"

"I zink e's having a meltdown," Blitzwing whispered.

"Silence!" the leader snapped.

"Oh, great Megatron," Lugnut said. "The black vermin was weak, nevertheless, compared to-"

"SHUT UP!" Megatron shouted again. "Arachnia, get him out of here! _Everyone_ out! I need to think!"

His followers obeyed and left the Decepticon leader alone. Megatron leaned over the controls, breathing heavily. That blast was tougher than he anticipated. It knocked him clean out of the other Maximal's body. What did it take to bring these things down? First Blitzwing, then Starscream, and no he couldn't even get them by controlling one of their own. Apparently it had to take a lot more than he realized.

The next plan hit him so hard he almost beat himself over it. Why didn't he think of it before!

xXx

Author's Note: This what you get when listening to _Haunted_, _Going Under_, and _Switchback_. How 'bout that freaky action, huh?! By the way, I'm not putting up any more chapters until someone leaves a review...T_T


	17. Captive

Chapter XVII

"_That _was the most _scariest _moment I've _ever _been through!" Goldwing gasped. "Promise me you won't use your powers again, Panthora. Promise!"

"I can't promise that," the panther sighed. "Ow! Watch it!" They were trying to bandage her up. Biba was gathering the best soil her earth powers could find to heal her. "I didn't want to use my powers while I was sleeping, they just…_happened_."

"In other words, Megatron dragged her little spirit self over to his place and tried to kill her," Darkjaw said.

"No, he didn't want to kill me, he wanted to _use _me," Panthora corrected. When he took over my body, I saw _his_ mind as well. He was thinking of using me to fight you guys."

"But how do we get you to sleep without Megatron barging in all the time?" Nightfang spoke up. Panthora shrugged and looked at Icefire, hoping the dragon had a plan.

Icefire nodded and gave Nightfang instructions. "Before she goes to sleep, give her a sweet dream. It might serve as a barrier against him. _Comprende_?"

"Yes, sir," Nightfang said. The Maximal leader nodded and continued helping the others put Panthora together. Megatron had hurt her badly as he was trying to get inside her body. Cuts, slashes, marks, everything was on her. This Megatron guy must've been pretty desperate to get the All Spark if he was willing to get into a techno-organic's body; which was a pretty bold move to Icefire. Now he had tap-danced on her last nerve and was going to get a full blast of ice from her as an early Christmas present. You mess with one, you mess with all. Or as a shirt she saw in a theme park once "You mess with me, you mess with the whole trailer park." (Wouldn't that be a great gift for one of her uncles?)

"Biba, get some mud on there," Icefire instructed, pointing to Panthora's leg. "It's pouring out fast."

"I can't believe this happened," Jericho breathed. "And I missed it."

"You wouldn't be able to do anything," Aries cried. "I wasn't. Maybe the Spark was right. Maybe we aren't ready for this yet."

Jericho sighed. He wanted everything to do with the Maximals and the All Spark wouldn't let him. He saw Aries' reaction to Panthora's possession as proof that neither he nor her were ready for any of this. Aries started to think that the three families really were ready for it, and that's why the All Spark changed them. Now here they were, fixing up a wounded fighter.

"It hurts," Panthora moaned.

"Better than Megatron, though," Darkjaw said. "You've got it tougher. Right, Ice?"

"Yep," the dragon said. "If Megatron can channel himself through Panthora because of her power, than this is serious. I want you guys to know, by all means necessary, and if you get the chance, _kill Megatron_."

"After what he did to my sister, he's all mine!" Nightfang growled.

"And Starscream belongs to me!" Tigress spoke up. "I won't forgive for him almost killing you, sis."

"Thanks, kitty," Icefire joked. "You can have him. But the loony's mine. Trying to put the moves on me… Mess with the dragon, you get the horns _and_ the blast."

The room became a chorus of laughter as they remembered Blitzwing trying to smooth-talk to her. Jericho was the only one not laughing since he was the only one not there.

"What the heck is she talking about?" he said, looking at the Maximals.

"I'll tell ya," Aries said, turning him around to speak to him. "You see, about a week ago…"

"Will he do it again?" Biba said.

"After burying him in the lake?" Darkjaw howled. "I don't think so!" Icefire snickered and saw Jericho giggling as Aries got to the part of Blitzwing trying to impress the dragon with his looks--and Jericho could relate. It was irritating back then, but now it was funny.

"Stop poking me!" Panthora shouted to her brother.

"You want to get better or not?"

"You got a Band-Aid or something?"

"Sorry, I don't think they make those in extra-extra-extra large," Goldwing joked.

"Everyone's a comedian in this family," Panthora muttered. Biba splashed another batch of mud on Panthora's leg and she inhaled sharply. Biba covered leaves over it and patted them down.

"You gonna be okay, sissy," Biba said in that cute voice. Panthora raised an arm and petted Biba's head.

"Thanks, squirt," she said. She looked over to Nightfang. "I'm tired."

"I'm on it," the wolf sighed. He closed his eyes and focused on Panthora. The black and red panther closed her grey eyes and waited for her dream. It came sooner than she thought and went into a deep sleep. Nightfang opened his eyes to see his younger sister smiling. "Poor sis," he sighed. He switched his gaze to Icefire. She was still working on Panthora's right leg. "Remember when you guys used to some over? Tigress would play with Panthora and you with me?"

"Yeah, I remember," Icefire said, feeling the nostalgia. "Every time I came over, you'd have me as Player 2 on that _Lord of the Rings _game."

"I forgot to tell you, but the game's broken…"

"Excuse me?" Icefire raised an optic ridge. "Broken as in…how?"

"As in 'dropped to the kitchen floor and shattered to pieces' kind of broken." Nightfang shrugged. "Sorry."

"It's all right. We still have those Pokèmon games to play. Do you think they'll ever run out of mineral names for those things?"

"Doubt it," Darkjaw muttered.

"Totally," Goldwing said. The bird was laying across the rock with his hands behind his head as a pillow and his eyes closed. Darkjaw was on the dirt floor, arms out like he was ready to make a snow angel--or dirt angel in this case.

"Change the subject, uh…" Icefire tried to think of something. "How about I just take a walk? Can you guys keep Panthora under control? I know _you_ can, Tigress."

"Straight up!" the tiger perked up. Icefire chuckled and stood up.

"See you guys later," she said. She received a chorus of good-byes and walked out. Jericho and Aries watched her leave until she was out of sight.

The dragon wandered aimlessly around the forest. She missed being human. For starters, she couldn't see her family again. Second, changed by an alien artifact and stuck in the middle of a war because of it really got on her nerves. She thought deeper about it and realized that if the All Spark didn't change her, the Decepticons would have the All Spark by now and the human race would be wiped out. This was just too much to handle.

A cry came from half a mile away from her position. She slowly walked towards it so she wouldn't frightened the one who owned the cry. She knew she was close when she heard sobbing. The dragon crouched low to the ground and looked out from the low tree branches. A girl was sitting on a large rock and was hugging herself to feel better. She must've been about five years old.

"Mommy!" she sobbed. "I wanna go home! Help me." Her cries were too soft to be heard. Icefire was lucky to even hear them herself. "Mommy." Icefire wanted to help her. If not her, then who? The ranger station was miles away as well as the camp grounds.

Icefire turned around and cut herself just a bit. She hoped this plan would work--she prayed--and rustled the leaves. The girl turned her head to see what it was. Icefire transformed quickly and let out a few pitiful groans to fake that she was hurt. The girl stood up and walked towards Icefire. When she was in full view, Icefire looked at her as if she never seen her before. The girl started to shake.

"H…Hi…" she said softly. "I'm…Maggie. What's your name?"

Icefire just gave her a lowing sound in her throat as a response. Maggie moved closer to her.

"Are you okay?" she whimpered. Icefire turned her head around to her backside and moved her leg up. Maggie saw the cut, but didn't know the dragon caused it on herself. She gasped at the purple liquid coming from it.

"What are you?" she gasped. Icefire didn't give a response. "Can you take me back home?"

Icefire turned her head again and motioned to the cut. Maggie understood and grabbed a small Band-Aid from her backpack. She ripped the paper from the back of it and placed it on the dragon's leg. Icefire purred to show her she was grateful.

"Heh!" The girl giggled as Icefire nudged her a bit. Once she stopped, Maggie repeated the question. "Can you take me home?"

Icefire moved her head over slightly to the right and pointed with her chin. Maggie petted Icefire's cheek.

"Is that the way home?" she said. Icefire nodded. Maggie kissed the dragon below the eye. "Thanks!" The girl ran off in the direction Icefire told her to go.

"Be safe, little one," Icefire said softly. She transformed and was lying across the dirt and grass. She brought her leg into view and took off the Band-Aid. Her little cut already stopped bleeding. She threw the Band-Aid to the side and stood up. "You'll need it."

"Aww, zat vas cute!" said a voice. Icefire took on another fighting stance and looked around. That voice was way too familiar. "I jould ave gotten a scan. Ha ha!"

"All right, freak-a-zoid," Icefire growled. "Come on out, I don't have time for hide-and-seek."

"No one's hiding," said another voice, a female's. "You must be blind if you can't even see us!"

"You are no match for the great Megatron, weak organic!" This voice was deep and almost made Icefire shake. "His power will triumph!"

"If you want to get on Megatron's good side, you better _shut up_!" It was Starscream.

"You told me you quit," Icefire snickered. "You're pathetic, Starscream. Not to mention an egocentric _jerk_."

"Take it back!" Starscream came out of hiding and lashed at the dragon. He tried to claw at her, but she dodged every attack. It wasn't that easy; this guy was fast! He nearly got her on the arm and just barely made it to her stomach.

"Chill, man!" she shouted. "Don't get worked up over a little name-calling!"

"I've been called names before and I'm _sick of it_!" He struck out at the dragon and scratched the surface of her neck. Icefire grunted in pain.

"Bastard!" she screamed. Her mouth opened wide and a blast of ice shot out at the seeker. He was forced backwards into a tree and his body froze there. Only his head survived the blast. He struggled to get out.

"Release me at once!" he shouted. Icefire smirked.

"And what makes you think I would want to do that?" she said. A clawed hand came around her neck and squeezed her. Icefire chocked and brought her hands up to the assailant's arm.

"Don't try any tricks, girl," said the female's voice. "I know when someone's bluffing."

Blitzwing came out of hiding and his face switched quickly to the red hothead. His cannons faced down and pointed them towards Starscream. He activated them and two beams of fire melted the ice to relive the seeker.

"I still hate you," Starscream muttered.

"Wha…ck…wha do…you…want?!" Icefire chocked.

"Just you, for now," the woman hissed. "Megatron has plans. He won't tell us."

"In my opinion-" Blitzwing's head whirled to Random "-I zink he as plans zat disturbs us all! AAAAAHHHHAAAA!"

"Blitz…you're _sick_!…" Icefire growled. Before another sound could come from her mouth, Black Arachnia squeezed her throat tighter until she passed out.

*

"Ow, my head…" Icefire moaned. "Where am I?" Her vision was still a blur, but she still didn't like what she saw.

"The _Nemesis_," said a dark voice. "You're aboard my ship, and right above your hometown."

"What's up, Megs?" Icefire moaned. She tried to look at the face of her capturer. "How you doin'?"

"Never mind that. Now tell me, w-?"

"I told your buddies already, I'm not spilling any guts here. I don't literally mean that. It's just an expression."

"Very well…"

"Why did you capture me, anyway?"

"So they can come save you."

Icefire was a bit confused. "Uh, isn't that what you're trying to avoid? Usually the bad guys don't want a rescue mission on the way."

"That's the idea. If they come save you, we can destroy them. They can't survive without their leader, which makes this easier."

"Screw you."

"Excuse me?"

"Never mind…"

xXx

Author's Note: Just so ya know, the holograph of the little girl was set up by Lugnut. O.o


	18. The Call

Chapter XVIII

"She's been gone a long time, hasn't she?" Panthora said. She was in perfect condition now; no more cuts and slashes. Now that she was better, the Maximals had something else to worry about. "Do you think she's okay?"

"I've just searched the south part of the forest," Goldwing announced. "She's not there."

"And I checked the north and west. She's not there, either," Nightfang said.

"I checked east," Biba said sadly. "No Ith-fire…"

"But she just wouldn't go AWOL on us!" Tigress shouted. "I know my sister; she'd _never_ do that. M-maybe she's in the lake!"

"If she was, I didn't see her," Darkjaw said. "And even if she did, that would be a form of suicide. Her organic half can't live underwater like mine can."

Jericho and Aries were standing outside of the small group, listening to the conversation. They were starting to wonder why they even bothered to visit the Maximals in the first place if they weren't able to do a thing whenever something came up. Sure, it was cool having giant half-alien robots as friends. But what else was there? Aries learned in church that God always put people where they were for a reason. Now, this also concerned another god; the Cybertronian god--if they even had one. Did _that _god have them there for a reason, or did _her _God have them there for a reason, or were both gods working together on this? Whatever reason, Jericho nor her knew it.

"I did pick some energy readings while I was over on the west side," Goldwing spoke up. "Two of them I didn't know, but the other two are we all know."

"Star-shitty and Mr. Loony Tunes," Tigress growled.

"Exactly. I also picked up Icefire's. Those Decepticons may have done something to her."

"If that German freak did anything to my sister…!"

"Sorry, kitty-cat, I can't be sure of that. But I've traced them back to another spot on Earth: downtown Jacksonville."

"_Are you kidding me_?!" Nightfang howled. "Of all the places we've could've gone, the warmonger chooses our home!"

"Plus, it's populated with a _lot_ of people," Darkjaw added. "This is gonna be tough."

"Bring it on!" Tigress shouted. "If getting my sis back and killing off Mega-dweeb means destroying a few buildings, then I'm good with it. I don't give a crap if I get sued!"

"Let's get 'em!" Biba cheered.

"Hold it, red light!" Nightfang spoke up. "I don't think we should just barge in there and demand to get Icefire back. We got to come up with something."

"And what the hell are we supposed to do?" Darkjaw said.

"Don't worry, we'll think of something."

"Icefire's counting on us, Nightfang," Goldwing said. Nightfang nodded slowly. Being second-in-command wasn't as fun as he'd thought it would be.

"Sis, can you speak to Icefire for us?" Nightfang said, turning to his sister. Panthora started to shake.

"I don't think we can risk it again, 'Fang," Aries said. "What if Megatron gets a hold of her again? Last time she didn't even mean to use her powers. Think of what could happen if she _did_."

"Then we've got a lot of planning to do."

*

Icefire was chained to the wall; her arms tied behind her back, legs bound together as well as her wings, and even her neck had a collar on that chained to the wall. Blitzwing and Lugnut were standing guard in front of her cell as Megatron waited for the other Maximals to come. Now and again, Blitzwing would get bored and would do anything to have fun…anything. For example, his crazy face wanted to kiss Icefire but all he got was an icy beam in the optics and a kick between the leg servos. After that, the other times he wanted some fun, he would start irritating the tar out of the giant mech next to him. Icefire laughed at the moment. Lugnut's one red eye looked at her.

"What are you laughing at, weakling?" he growled.

"Laughing at how you two kind of remind me of either me and my sister, or four of the other Maximals who bicker to each other."

"I thought zere vas seven of you," Blitzwing butted in.

"Yeah, but the littlest one doesn't fight much."

"Zat vetch better learn soon or Megatron vill have her killed faster zan a turbo-fox could vrun."

"I'm guessing that's insanely fast," Icefire muttered to herself. "So what's with the chick? I mean, the _femme_? What's her problem?"

"She's mad because she lost somebody," said Blitzwing with his blue face. "She vas an Autobot once."

Icefire's eyes were huge and her mouth came slightly open. "The girl was an Autobot?!" she nearly screeched. "What the heck happened?!"

"Zey ditched her and left her to ze spiders."

"So…that explains the attitude…" Icefire whispered, "_and_ the look." She wished she hadn't said anything when Black Arachnia swung over on a web string like an imitation Spiderman. Lugnut and Blitzwing didn't have enough time to get in her way when she sprang forward and dug her claws and stingers deep into Icefire's body.

"RRRAAAAAAWWR!" the dragon roared. "STOP!"

"Make me!" Black Arachnia hissed. "Say anything about me again and I will have you for a meal!" Ten long seconds passed and the spider let go. She spoke to the two stunned mechs. "Megatron wants you two at the front. Starscream will watch her now."

"Aww, ow come Starscream gets all ze fun?" Blitzwing whined in his jack-o-lantern face. The spider hissed and the large duo sped off ahead of her. Out of the dark hall came Starscream, optics glowing bright red and narrow.

"Having fun?" he said. Icefire didn't answer. Her head was bowed low and her shoulders were steaming from Arachnia's attack. "I asked you a question."

"Pass," Icefire moaned. Starscream was about to shoot back with another comment when he heard a sound coming from the dragon; she was crying. "Why?…Why, why us?…We've never done anything!" She took in a sniff and continued. "We didn't choose any of this! We were just camping and that freaky little ball comes in the picture and ruins it all!…I hate it!"

Starscream said nothing in return. This techno-organic didn't need anyone to say anything. He just stood there, staring at her with the same expression he had on when he came in. For a long time, everything was so quiet it was irritating.

"_It started out as a feeling…Which then turned…into hope…_" Icefire was singing as she was still forcing out some tears. "_Which then turned into…a quiet thought…which then turned into a quiet…word…_"

"What are you saying?" Starscream finally spoke. Icefire ignored him and continued.

"_And then…that word grew…louder and louder…'till it was a battle cry…I'll come back, when you call…me…No need to say…good-bye…_"

For the first time, the seeker actually felt pity (and the feeling he had the other day). His eyes softened their intensity and his shoulders lowered. He listened to the sobbing dragon sing herself to what sounded like a lullaby.

"_Just because everything's changing, doesn't mean…it's never…been this way before…All you can do…is try to know who your…friends are…as you head off to the war…_"

"Shut that off!" Megatron shouted from the deck. Starscream flinched to the disruption in the near silence, but kept listening to Icefire sing.

"_Figures star on the dark…horizon and…follow the light_." Her crying stopped and she sang clearly. "_You'll come back, when they call you. No need to say good-bye._" She stopped for a hummed an instrumental part of the song. "_Now we're back to the beginning. It's just a feeling that no one knows yet…But just because they can feel it too, doesn't meant that you have to forget…Let your memories grow stronger and stronger, 'till they're before your eyes. You'll come back, when they call you. No need to say good-bye. You'll come back, when they call you. No need to say good-bye…_"

xXx

Author's Note: _The Call _is one of my favorite songs! If you don't recognize it, it's from _Narnia: Prince Caspian_.


	19. Icefire's Sweet Escape

Chapter XIX

"What was that?" Starscream dared to ask. Icefire looked up at him. Her eyes were shining as a result of the tears and her face held a broken smile.

"Singing," she said softly. "It kind of helps me. Now I don't even feel like I'm being held hostage anymore. You ever do that?"

"What I do is try to escape, not sing," Starscream replied, his face becoming intense again. "You're weak."

"Physically, yeah." Icefire stared at the ground. "Mentally…that's a different story."

"Starscream!" Lugnut shouted to the seeker. The winged Decepticon turned his back on the dragon to acknowledge him. "That idiotic human government is on their way. We shall show them no mercy!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Starscream muttered. He left Icefire alone in the dim-lit room. The dragon looked around for any form of security. There weren't even cameras around to watch her. Alone at last!

"'Bout time, boys," she snickered. She put her back to the ground and, under her body, reached for her feet. She clawed away at the fiber ropes, cutting them off. She heard a slight rip and stood up. Now she had the leash and her hands to worry about. She turned around and softly blew on the chain to freeze it. Luckily, the Decepticons didn't bind her tail to her leg and she slashed off the chain. Using the tail again, she brought it as tall as she could behind her back to use the spikes of her tail to cut the ropes holding her wings together. With that done, she stretched them out to get the rest of the rope off. Gently and slowly, with the tip of her right wing, she took that between her arms and slipped it between the hands, tearing the last of the bindings off. She massaged her wrists a bit to get the feeling out.

"Nice knot, Blitzy," she muttered. "Too bad you're stupid, and I don't date stupid. That'll make _me_ wear the pants in the relationship." She stepped towards the cell door. She blew on it to freeze up the glass. The dragon walked back to the back of the cell and put her right shoulder towards the glass. She prayed for a miracle and ran at full speed at the crystal wall. The thorn on her shoulder helped with breaking through the weak glass and it shattered to pieces and fell to the ground with the dragon. Icefire looked around and tried to listen for anyone coming by. When the coast was clear, she headed for the nearest (what seemed to be) chute and crawled through.

"This is _way _better than Adventure Landing!" Icefire said. She pushed forward and slid down the chute. Soon, she was out of the ship. She rolled her wing sockets to keep her position and looked back at her prison. They didn't call it _Nemesis _for nothing.

"In battle, Lord Megatron," she whispered. She gave a kiss good-bye as a joke and flew off. Before she could get far, she was shot in the arm by a bullet.

"What the hell?!" she shouted, looking at her wound. It wasn't too large, but another shot her in the wing, and it was a bigger bullet than the last.

"Crap! Mayday, mayday!" She fell to the ground and her body nearly dug into the dirt. She brought her head up. On top was a patch of grass, a load of dirt on her face, and some in her mouth. She spit the dirt out of her mouth and looked to the side. She knew exactly where she landed; the middle of her school's gym track and, sometimes, back parking lot. There were some eighth graders in their gym clothes, staring at the dragon.

"Get out of here, freak!" said one boy. Icefire took a good look at him. Could it really be?

"Hi to you, too, Darrius," she said, spitting out the rest of the dirt. The boy looked at her wide-eyed.

"You know me?" he said.

"Yeah. I'm the quiet one in the back of Mrs. Huffman's class. 'Member?"

"No…?"

"Shamus, Brandi, and Mahogany are the only ones that talk to me in that class."

Darrius stood still as others kept eyeballing the mechanical dragon. One walked up to her and said hi. Wait a sec…

"Sarah!"

"Brianna? That's _you_? H-How…?"

"Long story." Icefire brushed some more dirt off her body and tried to reach the ones caught in her joints. "By the way, I'm done with the _Twilight _series. You can come to my birthday now!" She was about to get a laugh out when she took to the sky and flew off. "I can't believe it. Out of all the spots downtown, the aliens choose near the school. Brilliant, _bloody_ brilliant…"

*

"'Fang, get serious," Tigress said. "Trying to sneak into the city is like painting a giant target to our backs. There's no way we can get by the police and possibly the military without being noticed."

"Then what do _you_ propose we do?" Nightfang snapped back. "Give 'em a bell so each time it rings we walk in a say 'Room service!'? Not this pup!"

"Hm! Room service…" Biba giggled. "That's funny!"

"And kind of retarded," Panthora muttered. "So how are we _really _going in?"

"_Hello_? Have you learned nothing from TV? You swoop in at the moment there seems to be no hope. And you got to wait until everyone has their back turned." Everyone looked to see who gave out the idea.

"Icefire? No way!"

Sure enough, Icefire had hovered back down onto the platform. The Maximals ran up to her, giving her hugs, pats on the back, and high-fives. Jericho and Aries stood away from the group, slack-jawed.

"I wonder how the Decepticons took it," Aries whispered.

*

At the _Nemesis_, Megatron is staring at an empty cell. And it's kind of hard to see, but his audio receivers have smoke coming out of them.

"_StarSCREEEAM_!"

xXx

Author's Note: How _stupid _was that?! Leaving the captive alone? Even Wheelie (ROTF) could do a better job then that!


	20. Battle of Titans

Chapter XX

"What is that thing?" said Officer Kendrick. He and Gerald were staring up at the space warship with a pair of binoculars.

"Beats me," Gerald answered. "But judging by the way it's hovering over the bank, I'd say it's alien."

Kendrick gave him a glare. "Everyone's a comedian these days…Where's the tanks?"

"We can't blow that thing until it fires first, remember? Navy tactics."

"Whatever…" He took another look through the binoculars. "I wonder what they look like in there."

"Kendrick! Gerald!" The head of police called the men over and they stood in front of him with their backs straight. "Did anyone send for the jets, yet?"

"No, sir. They're still loading up," Gerald reported. "What are we to do until they come?"

"Well, if the so-called aliens fire on us, either get out and run or fire back and hope the bullets make it through. I don't know if they have force-fields or acidic bodies. I really don't give a shit. All I care is this country ending up in one piece. If the F-22s never show, then God help us."

People from each side were running away from the warship and others had their cell phones, picture cameras, and video cameras to try and get it.

"This is so much cooler than the forest incident!" said a cameraman with a news reporter. "Do you think we can get a closer shot at this?"

"Ray, I don't think we can!" said the news lady. "All these people are in my way and--Hey! Give me back my purse!" She chased after the crook as the cameraman laughed at her loss.

"Kendrick, I want you to get the tanks loaded up," the sheriff directed. "Gerald, stay here and keep watch of what that thing does." He pointed at the warship. "If it even craps something out, I want to know about it." He left the men to their work.

"He wants to know if the alien ship goes to the bathroom," Gerald chuckled. "I knew the boss was weird." Kendrick patted his friend on the back and went to follow directions. Gerald looked through the binoculars. He found the front window somehow and saw giant beings moving around. They looked like they were bickering. A grey one was beating a skinny fuchsia one repeatedly. "This is better than TV." The grey machine stopped and walked to what looked like the controls. One press of the button and a large gun emerged from the bottom and the screaming became louder. Gerald reached for his walkie-talkie and radioed the sheriff.

"Chief?"

"What?!" the man snapped back.

"Um…We've got a little bit of a big problem."

"And exactly how _little _is this big problem?"

"They're going to fire." He wasn't able to say anything more when he spotted a giant gold eagle attack the ship and pecked wildly at the gun. Once the gun was weak at the core, the beak charged with electricity and the bird took another bite. The gun fell down to the ground, causing an explosion on at least five cars.

"Did you see that?!" Gerald shouted through the radio.

"What was that?!" the sheriff screamed back.

"It was an eagle! God bless America, it was a gold eagle!"

*

"Nice blow, bro!" Darkjaw said, giving his brother a high-five as he swooped down and transformed. "Wish I had that power!"

"Maybe we can use it sometime in this. Water plus electricity equals kaboom!" Goldwing laughed. The Maximals were in south downtown of Jacksonville. Hundreds of bystanders cheered them on. They saw the ship turn slightly and another gun came from it, and pointed straight in their direction.

"Biba! Shield!" Icefire shouted. Biba stepped forward, jumped up at least thirty feet in the air, and came back down, releasing enough force to bring the concrete and earth upwards. Biba held the large rock in place and waited for the blast. Megatron fired the blaster and half the rock was torn from Biba's grip. The monkey bended down on one knee, trying to hold up the rock.

"Come on, Biba!" Panthora cheered. "You the monkey!"

The people in the area helped encourage Biba with a few of their own cheers and Biba had more confidence than a three-year should carry. More concrete and rock came from the ground and merged with the one Biba was holding. Megatron fired another laser, but the rock only shook. Not even one sample of dirt fell from it.

"Way to go, sis!" Nightfang shouted. Once she was sure Megatron wasn't going to fire again, Biba let go of the rock and let it fall wherever it ended up. She didn't even care if it landed on the Mercedes. She breathed heavily and felt like passing out. Icefire ran over to her side.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" she said. "Now's the time to turn back."

Biba looked up at Icefire with her khaki eyes. "Hold me back," she gasped. "I'm gonna go freaky on his behind!"

Icefire laughed. "That's the spirit." She stood up and turned to her team (and the bystanders). "Fight together, or fight each other. You guys ready?"

"Yeah!" they cheered. "Let's kick some Decepticon butts! Or whatever it's called!"

Icefire gave a wicked smile and shouted, "Release the animals!"

*

"Yo, Gerald," Kendrick said, disrupting him. Gerald took his eyes away from the binoculars and looked at his friend. Kendrick was pointing in a direction ahead of him. "You see that?" Gerald turned his head and looked through his binoculars to stare in the same direction. Seven mechanical beings were on their way; two in the sky, one in the St. John's River, three running on fours, and one riding the back of a black and red, metal panther.

"What in God's name is that?" Gerald gasped. The dragon flew straight at the men and landed right in front of them. The officers held out their guns, their hands shaking.

"Evening, boys," she said. "Try not to aim at the colorful ones, all right? We're on you're side."

"Oh yeah?" Gerald said, attempting, and failing, to sound tough. "And, uh…what proof do you have of this?"

"My eagle just took out the laser on that thing," she answered. "The next one tried to aim right at my youngest soldier. You tell me; are the Maximals on your side or not?"

Gerald looked at Kendrick. The other officer nodded repeatedly and lowered his gun. Gerald looked back at the dragon and did the same.

"Who are you?" he said.

"Name's Icefire," she smiled. "Enough chit-chat. Give the orders to the sheriff to evacuate however many people in downtown Jacks you can. I need all; air and ground support; no oceanic. Got that?"

"But we're ordered to stay here!" Kendrick said. Icefire shot him a look.

"Do you see that ship looming over N. Davis Street? The commander in that ship wants something my team has."

"Just give it to him!"

"Would you like your world destroyed by a psychopath or naturally by God's will? I vote God. Give me the support or every living being on this planet can kiss life good-bye."

The officers looked at each other for one more time. Kendrick nodded again. Gerald brought the walkie-talkie up to his mouth.

"Chief? I've got new orders for us. Aerial support and ground support; we need it all to bring down the bogie."

"And who gave these orders, pray tell?" the chief said on the other line.

Gerald took a look at Icefire. She smiled and he reflected it back with his own. "God's sent angels, that's who…Now give the order to the governor."

"Absolutely not!"

"Fine. I'll get him!"

"Officer, don't you dare-!"

Gerald switched the channel to shut out his boss. "Hey, Ice, you know I could get fired for this, right?"

"If this works out well, I'll make sure to get you a better one. Lord knows, you could be security at the White House."

"Thanks."

"No, thank _you_!" Icefire took off back into the sky and aimed for the ship. Gerald switched on the radio.

"Governor, we have a situation…"

The Maximals stood right under the _Nemesis_. The ship opened up to let out five evil beings.

"Decepticons, attack!" Megatron shouted.

"Show 'em who's boss!" Icefire yelled. "Long live Earth!" Seven techno-organics and five alien intruders charged at each other head-on and fought valiantly. Goldwing and Panthora, climbed on top of Lugnut, scratching, clawing, pecking. Biba threw boulders at Blitzwing, switching his face over and over again. Nightfang had Starscream pinned down on the ground as Tigress slashed his body.

"This is for my sister!" she roared. Darkjaw was battling it out at Black Arachnia, dodging every attack she placed in front of him. He came forward with three rows of teeth and buried them into her back. Icefire stood face-to-face with Megatron, their hands lapsed together and staring eye-to-eye. Icefire growled tremendously.

"The Autobots did not kill me," Megatron threatened. "What makes the Maximals so different?"

"Because we're wild, child!" Icefire roared. She let go of his grip and head-butted him in the midsection. Megatron stepped back a few times from the blow and held the sore behind his hand. "And the Autobots gave you a warning for us!" Icefire charged forward again with her claws extending five inches. She slashed at Megatron, hoping to hit him. The Decepticon leader stopped them with his sword in hand, which made Icefire even angrier. She held his sword in both her hands with her claws and was close enough to Megatron's face that she gave him a blast of ice. Megatron took steps back and thawed his face.

"Merry Christmas!" she shouted. "Give up, yet?"

"Never," Megatron hissed. The ice shattered off and his eyes glowered red so brightly they almost looked light pink. "Where's the All Spark?"

"Screw you and that damn ball!" Icefire roared. She jumped back and stood; ready to endure whatever Megatron felt like doing to her.

"You're a feisty little thing," he grinned.

"And you're sick," the dragon spat.

"Why don't we settle this like civilized beings?"

"Did you give Cybertron the same chance?"

Megatron was shot in the back by a sabot round before he could answer. He fell to the ground on his knees. Icefire looked up and saw the air support she asked for. Starscream was chasing the jets, and Goldwing was chasing him. The dragon looked back at the Decepticon leader. He was already up and he lashed out at Icefire. His sword pierced into her stomach and she cried.

"GGRRRRRAAAAHHHHWWRR!"

The Maximals' looked back at her, stopping the fight. They ran to her as Nightfang dashed towards Megatron to get him away from his cousin.

"Sis, are you all right?" Tigress sobbed.

"Bes…" Icefire moaned. Tigress leaned in closer.

"What? _What_? What is it?" she begged. Icefire looked at her sister weakly.

"Bestial…" she groaned. "Get the dog on a leash and bring him back. I want to try something."

"But you're in no condition!" Darkjaw argued. "You're hurt!"

"I don't need anything right now. Panthora, go get your brother, and hurry!"

Panthora nodded and ran to get Nightfang. She pulled him back and they stood above her. Icefire looked up to the sky and whispered something in a different language. The Maximals stared at their leader as she began to glow. In a short amount of time, they began to glow themselves.

"What's going on?!" Biba whined. "I'm scared!"

No one had an answer for the little monkey. All of their bodies began to change into something else and they connected to one another. They were engulfed in so much light that no one could see what was happening. Seven bodies merged into one and the glowing stopped. This was a new creature.

The head and chest of Nightfang, a wing and the horns of Icefire, another wing of Goldwing's, Darkjaw's tail and teeth, Biba's tail, left limbs of Panthora, and right limbs of Tigress. This thing was much taller than Megatron; this thing was stronger than Megatron; this thing would ensure Earth's life. This was Bestial.

"Careful, Megatron," said the new creature. Its voice was consumed of all seven Maximals. "You may have fought Autobots, but you've not fought against Earth creatures."

Megatron stood with his sword in hand. Blitzwing stepped in front of his leader and charged at Bestial. The merged body held the triple-changer by the beck and lifted him ten feet off the ground.

"Mercy!" he chocked. Bestial threw him to the other side of the wide street and kept walking slowly to Megatron. Black Arachnia and Lugnut were up next. The spider couldn't dig her stingers into Bestial's body and was thrown back by her own power into the river. Lugnut was too slow to keep up with the creature's attacks and fell to the ground. Starscream flew from the sky at Bestial, but the large Maximal bragged Starscream by the neck just like it had done with Blitzwing. Starscream struggled to be released. He looked into the Maximal's eyes with horror. He saw the anger of every single one inside that giant beast.

"Parley?" he whined. Bestial smirked and shot him into the sky. They didn't care where he ended up, as long as he was out of the way. Bestial had its eyes on Megatron. He was limping backwards and gripped his sword tighter. He never thought he would be stuck in this predicament. Bestial stood before him, growling seven snarls.

"The day man attempts to triumph over machine," Megatron gasped. "Is it enough?"

The Maximals were sick of this guy and hit him on the head so hard that the leader couldn't see straight.

"How does it feel?" said one voice; Panthora's. "That was for getting inside my body!"

Bestial flew up into the sky and struck back with a full body blow. Megatron tried to block it with his sword and was forced backwards. He brought his sword forward and tried to pierce Bestial's spark, or heart, whatever it was at this point. Bestial caught the sword in its palms and broke the sword in half. Megatron threw the sword to the side and pointed his arm cannon at the creature, but before he could fire, Goldwing's power shot from Bestial's hand and got him on the leg. It didn't do much damage, so the Decepticon ignored it. He brought his cannon up again and this time, Biba's earth ability made the ground under Megatron shake and tear from the rest of the earth. He was hovering at least twenty feet in the air. The grey 'bot jumped off of it before Bestial threw it fifty yards away. Megatron charged at the creature and was ready to swing a clenched fist. Darkjaw's part forced water from the sewers below and shot the Decepticon upwards into the sky. Megatron slid off the water spout, falling hard into the concrete road.

He got up slowly, trying to work against gravity. Panthora's psychosis began to crush the outer shell of Megatron's being and he grunted, attempting not to show any sign of weakness to the combined Maximal. Nightfang gave him a day-dream, just to force out the shouts. Megatron was surrounded by a black void, dead Cybertronian bodies rising and crawling towards him. He saw these bodies as the Autobots he had destroyed when he was on Cybertron.

"Stop it!" he yelled. Bestial gave a wicked, curled smile and intensified the torture of the dream. Megatron's spark felt like it had stopped and, in reality, was being bombed by government jets from above and tanks below. "I said STOP!"

Megatron broke from the dream and charged at Bestial. The creature stood still, wondering what else they could enforce on the old warmonger next. Its mouth opened, releasing two straight-shot beams of fire and of ice. The fire had melted some of his features and the ice and locked that into place. Both Maximal and Decepticon were about to go onto an all-out rage of battle when time stopped, literally stopped.

The jets were stuck in mid-air, the people were frozen where they were, be it running away or trying to get a better look. Bestial and Megatron each looked for an answer.

"Is this your doing, Maximal?" he growled.

"This is not hers, but mine," said a voice. Megatron held out his cannon in the direction the voice came from. A mechanical brown and black lion stood only ten feet away with a purple and pink lioness. They crawled towards the two brawling beings.

"Another Maximal," Megatron growled. "Reveal yourselves!"

Bestial stood buggy-eyed at the lions. The brown lion nodded once to them and the large creature bowed to it, one knee on the ground. Megatron took a glance at Bestial's position and back to the new Maximals.

"We are just like the Maximals, but we chose to become this," said the lioness. "We are Alpha and Omega, beginning and end."

"Time and space," the lion continued. He looked at Bestial. "Jericho and Aries.

Bestial received a shiver and stared at the lions. The voice of Icefire shot through. "Guess you two were ready."

"We are now," Omega giggled. "I wasn't too sure about Jericho, though."

"Enough!" Megatron yelled. "I've had it up to here with you techno-organics!" He pointed whatever remained of his arm cannon towards Alpha. Omega used her power and dissolved the cannon from his visage.

"You're finished here, Megatron," she said. "Primus is done with you."

"You speak to Primus?" Megatron chuckled. "How am I to believe you?"

"Ask him yourself," Alpha answered. Megatron had a chance to screech when Omega evaporated every molecule of metal from Megatron and he sent away, wherever Primus wanted him to go.

xXx

Author's Note: I didn't think of Bestial until I saw _The Exorcism of Emily Rose_ and the girl said there were six bodies inside her. That's where the big, bad Maximal machine came in!

xXx

Author's Note: Probably the longest chapter I've ever written. And I didn't think of Bestial until I saw some movie called The Excorsism of 


	21. Jiggety Jog

NEW FLASH! Ten chapters of the next story, Maximals Reborn: The Predacons, is now up for reading!

Chapter XXI

Silence was broken when Alpha let time go by again. At first there was screaming and cheering. Then the humans realized that the enemy was gone and two new saviors were standing before them. Bestial glowed again and the Maximals were back to their individual bodies.

"Brother, you need some serious work on yourself," said Goldwing. "Your fin was right in front of my face!"

"Sorry!" Darkjaw said sarcastically. "I don't know where any part of me ended up, anyway!"

"_That's_ an image," Tigress mumbled.

"Guys, quit it," Icefire moaned. "We're about to be hounded by six different television channels, I'm sure." Oddly enough, about twenty different cameras and sixteen reporters were shoving their microphones to the Maximals. Only a few had noticed Alpha and Omega revert back to Jericho and Aries. The girl jumped on Jericho and gave him a hug.

"That was so awesome!" she said. "And I kept cool!"

"Wish I'd gotten a chance to get _el polo loco_ on the grey gay guy," Jericho joked. Aries laughed and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "What was that for?!"

"For being a man," she said. "For the first time, you acted serious. I'm proud of you."

"Aww!" Panthora teased. "Kodak moment!"

"Get out of here!" Jericho said. Icefire laughed and turned around to see her school.

"That's so weird," she sighed. Four hundred sixth, seventh, and eighth graders were standing outside the building. A few stepped forward and smiled at her.

"Brianna!" one said. It was a guy. "Is that…? Wow!"

"Hey, Shamus," Icefire giggled.

"That's my girl!" said two others; Dominica and Mahogany. Icefire gave another laugh and looked back down at Jericho and Aries.

"How come you guys can change, but not us?" she said. Aries held up a finger and closed her eyes. All of the Maximals' bodies shifted and grew smaller. They were back to their old forms and wearing the same clothes they had on a few weeks ago.

"Thank you, God!" Brittany shouted to the sky. "I praise you!"

All the Maximals were running and jumping around. They used their human senses to get everything in. They missed being human so much that it seemed new to them now.

"Home again, home again!" Andre yelled.

"Jiggety jog!" William finished.

*

The Maximals were back home; Brianna and Brittany as Aries' neighbors; Andre and William being cried over by Monica; Cari, Cody, and Logan having the same problem with their own mother. They were put on a couple of talk shows and news' desks. It was interesting how it all happened, according to the news board. They wanted to get logical about how they changed, so Brianna and gave it her best shot: "The All Spark's power transferred into our bodies, merging with our cells and our thoughts. We had established earlier on the same day what we wanted to be if we ever had super powers and the All Spark gave us that wish. But we never thought we'd end up fighting an old warmonger from another planet." Everything was almost back to where it was (and Gerald was promoted lieutenant, thanks to the Maximals).

The All Spark was kept safe at the Summers' house. Every now and again, the Maximals had to have Jericho and Aries change them again. Apparently, killing Megatron irritated a few of his followers and tried to get back at them. Logan got into high school and the Decepticons were still coming. A team's work never _ever_ ends.

"**Fight each other, or fight together. What's it gonna be?"**

xXx

Author's Note: Oh, happy day!


End file.
